LB 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willing- 
less  for  Disinterested  Service  as 
Developed  in  the  Training  School 
of  the  State  Teacher  and  in  the 
Religious  Novitiate  and  the  Reli- 
gious Life. 


IRLF 


SB    17    3flT  BY 

LY  RUTH,  M.  A. 

OF   THE 

SRS  OP  SAINT  DOMINIC,  SINSINAWA,  Wis. 


A  DISSERTATION 

Catholic  Sisters  College  of  the  Catholic  University 
:a  in  Partial  Fulfillment  of  the  Requirements 
for  the  Degree  Doctor  of  Philosophy 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 
JUNE,  1917 


EXCHANGE 


The  Pedagogical  Value  of  Willing- 
ness for  Disinterested  Service  as 
Developed  in  the  Training  School 
of  the  State  Teacher  and  in  the 
Religious  Novitiate  and  the  Reli- 
gious Life. 


BY 

SISTER  MARY  RUTH,  M.  A. 

OF    THE 

SISTERS  OF  SAINT  DOMINIC,  SINSINAWA,  Wis. 


A  DISSERTATION 

Submitted  to  the  Catholic  Sisters  College  of  the  Catholic  University 

of  America  in  Partial  Fulfillment  of  the  Requirements 

for  the  Degree  Doctor  of  Philosophy 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 
JUNE,  1917 


PREFACE 

The  purpose  of  this  study  is  to  discover  in  what  school  a 
willingness  for  disinterested  service,  an  essential  element  of 
citizenship,  can  most  effectively  be  cultivated.  Modern  the- 
orists recognize  that  the  education  of  the  young  for  citizenship 
is  the  primary  obligation  of  the  State;  for  the  permanence  of 
our  institutions  is  dependent  upon  the  character  of  our  citi- 
zens. The  method  of  historical  approach  adopted  here  involves 
a  somewhat  detailed  survey  of  the  means  of  training  for  citi- 
zenship in  the  schools  of  our  country ;  this  survey  extends  from 
the  colonial  period  to  the  present  time. 

Since  instruction  alone  fails  to  reach  the  deep  springs  of 
conduct,  character-forming  in  the  school  is  vitally  dependent 
upon  the  personality  of  the  teacher.  This  being  true,  the  prob- 
lem of  training  citizens  in  disinterested  service  centers  in  the 
training  of  the  teacher.  The  actual  value  of  present  teacher- 
training  in  developing  the  elements  of  character  which  form 
the  moral  foundation,  and  the  actual  methods  and  practices  in 
operation  to  accomplish  this  primary  end  of  State  education 
can  with  profit,  we  think,  be  subjected  to  more  critical  study 
than  has  hitherto  been  given  them. 

This  study  is  an  inquiry,  therefore,  into  the  means  employed 
by  each  of  the  two  school  systems  of  the  United  States  to 
furnish  teachers  equipped  for  the  important  work  of  teaching 
disinterested  service.  In  this  study  we  purpose  to  consider  the 
three  elements  which  enter  into  this  equipment.  These  elements 
are:  the  selection  of  the  candidates  for  teaching,  the  teacher- 
training  of  the  candidates,  and  the  training  of  the  teachers 
while  in  service.  The  problem  is  to  determine  the  relative  value 
of  the  contribution  of  the  State  school  system  and  of  the 
Catholic  school  system  to  the  training  for  disinterested  serv- 
ice; that  is,  disinterested  service  as  an  element  of  citizenship 
in  the  United  States.  The  answer  lies  in  the  relative  emphasis 
placed  by  each  of  the  school  systems  upon  these  three  elements 
of  training  which  are  strong  factors  in  the  process  of  forming 
teachers  to  practice  disinterested  service  and,  therefore,  of 
equipping  them  to  cultivate  in  pupils  the  same  moral  quality. 

The  writer  is  happy  to  have  this  opportunity  to  acknowledge 
gratefully  the  valuable  assistance  and  encouragement  given 
by  the  Very  Reverend  Thomas  Edward  Shields,  Ph.D.,  under 
whose  direction  this  dissertation  was  written. 

February  2,  1917. 

362097 


THE  PEDAGOGICAL  VALUE  OF  WILLINGNESS  FOR  DIS- 
INTERESTED SERVICE  AS  DEVELOPED  IN  THE 
TRAINING  SCHOOL  OF  THE  STATE  TEACHER 
AND  IN  THE  RELIGIOUS  NOVITIATE  AND  THE 
RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

CONTENTS 

PAGE 

PRELIMINARY  STATEMENT 7 

CHAPTER  I. — The  Qualities  of  Citizenship 10 

CHAPTER  II. — The  Means  of  Training  for  Citizenship  in  the 

Colonial  and  Transitional  Schools  of  Our  Country 21 

CHAPTER  III. — The  Specific  Means  of  Training  for  Citizen- 
ship in  the  Secularized  Schools  of  the  United  States ....     35 

CHAPTER  IV.— The  Personality  of  the  Teacher 58 

CHAPTER  V. — The  Preparation  of  the  State  Teacher  to  Train 

in  Willingness  for  Disinterested  Service 73 

CHAPTER  VI. — The  Preparation  of  the  Religious  Teacher  to 

Train  in  Willingness  for  Disinterested  Service 105 

CONCLUSION 146 

BIBLIOGRAPHY.  .  .   148 


PRELIMINARY  STATEMENT 

The  aim  of  education  determines  the  principles  that  control 
it  and  the  ideals  that  animate  it.  Educational  organization 
follows  and  depends  upon  the  social  changes  of  a  nation  and 
attempts  to  carry  out  the  ideas  involved  in  the  changes.  The 
controlling  purpose  of  all  State  education  is  to  train  its  mem- 
bers for  efficient  citizenship.  The  principle  underlying  its 
entire  educational  policy  is  the  right  of  the  State  to  self- 
preservation,  from  which  principle  follows  its  power  to  adopt 
lawful  means  necessary  to  secure  its  well-being.  Upon  this 
principle  rests  the  argument  and  justification  of  educating 
individuals  at  public  expense.  Since  the  State  depends  for  its 
very  permanence  upon  the  education  of  its  citizens,  it  is  fulfill- 
ing its  primary  and  essential  function  when  it  occupies  itself 
with  the  task  of  furnishing  individual  opportunity  of  education 
to  the  children  of  the  masses. 

While  the  State  attempts  to  develop  the  personal  power  and 
responsibility  of  the  individual,  it  attempts  to  do  so  only  as 
a  means  to  attain  the  larger  end  of  efficient  social  action.  Its 
supreme  purpose  is  to  make  for  social  progress,  and  its  entire 
system,  in  theory  at  least,  is  orientated  with  reference  to  the 
maintenance  and  the  progress  of  the  State.  Especially  is  this 
the  present  trend  of  educational  science,  as  is  evidenced  by 
the  inquiry  of  a  large  class  of  educators  into  the  relationship 
between  school  work  and  other  social  activities.  Instead  of 
regarding  the  school  as  an  end  in  itself,  they  are  giving  syn- 
thetic thought  to  the  relationship  between  school  problems 
and  the  general  welfare  of  the  community.  This  conception 
of  the  school  in  close  relation  to  the  social  environment  has 
grown  out  of  the  instinctive  sense  of  the  need  of  something  to 
take  the  place  of  those  religious  and  moral  processes  of  educa- 
tion now  almost  neglected.1 

Another  class  of  educators  holds  that  the  ideal  of  education 
is  personal,  and  the  aim,  the  development  of  personality. 
According  to  this  theory  of  individualism,  the  improvement 
of  society  is  a  secondary  consideration.  Attention  is  focused 
upon  making  the  individual  better  without  thought  of  estab- 

1  Cf.  Sadler,  M.  E.,  "The  School  in  Relation  to  Social  Organization,"  Con- 
gress of  Arts  and  Sciences.  Boston,  1907,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  95.  Cf.  Snedden,  D. 
Vocational  Education.  Boston,  1912,  p.  IV. 


8  Psdnyotjicul   Value  of    Willingness 

lishing  a  consciousness  of  community  relations.  Any  adequate 
concept  of  education  must  recognize  both  the  claims  of  society 
and  the  claims  of  the  individual.  "The  mission  of  the  school  is 
to  shape  the  development  of  the  individual  with  a  view  both 
to  his  personal  growth  in  virtue  and  to  the  discharge  of  his 
social  obligations."2  The  same  basic  thought  is  expressed  by 
Doctor  Monroe:  ''From  whatever  interest,  whether  practical 
or  theoretical,  or  from  whatever  line  of  investigation,  the 
problem  of  education  is  now  approached,  its  meaning  is  given 
in  some  terms  of  this  harmonization  of  social  and  individual 
factors.  It  is  the  process  of  conforming  the  individual  to  the 
given  social  standard  or  type  in  such  a  manner  that  his  inherent 
capacities  are  developed,  his  greatest  usefulness  and  happiness 
obtained,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  highest  welfare  of  society 
is  conserved."3 

On  the  basis  that  education  has  two  aspects  and  involves 
two  factors,  (1)  the  development  of  the  individual,  (2)  the 
creation  and  cultivation  of  his  sense  of  obligation  to  society, 
the  first  step  is  to  consider  the  character  of  the  citizen  in 
whom  is  effected  an  equilibrium  between  individual  interests 
and  social  interests.  Agere  sequitur  esse  is  a  scholastic  maxim. 
External  conduct  depends  upon  interior  discipline.  If  the 
State  would  make  itself  secure  as  a  socially  efficient  community, 
it  must  look  to  the  personal  character  of  its  citizens  quite  as 
zealously  as  to  their  vocational  training.  "Preparation  for  the 
duties  of  citizenship  is  not  less  indispensable  than  preparation 
for  a  trade.  And  preparation  for  the  duties  of  citizenship 
means  that  the  school  must  endeavor  to  impart  a  civic  and 
moral  ideal."4 

At  this  time  when  vocational  education  and  social  efficiency 
are  occupying  the  central  place  in  the  educational  conscious- 
ness, and  the  moral  demands  of  our  complex  social  life  are 
increasingly  great,  the  problem  of  moral  and  civic  education 
becomes  vitally  important  and  calls  for  serious  consideration. 
Of  the  fourfold  division  of  the  educative  process  given  by  Dr. 


2  Pace,    E.    A.,    "Education   and     the    Constructive    Aims,"     Constructing 
Quarterly,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  601. 

3  Monroe,  P.,  Text-book  in  the  History  of  Education.    New  York,  1905,  pp. 
755-56. 

4  Sadler,  M.  E.,  '  'Introduction' '  to  Education  for  Citizenship,  by  Kerschen- 
steiner,  G.     Chicago,  1911,  p.  IX. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  9 

Snedden,  this  is  the  form  of  education  designed  to  fit  the  indi- 
vidual to  live  among  his  fellows.5 

In  connection  with  moral  training  as  a  means  of  forming 
good  civic  habits  the  value  of  work  must  be  recognized,  not 
merely  in  the  sense  of  a  productive  process,  but  as  an  invaluable 
factor  in  giving  bent  to  the  unformed  will  and,  therefore,  in 
developing  character.  "The  chief  enemy  of  active  virtue  in  the 
world  is  not  vice,  but  laziness,  languor  and  apathy  of  will."6 
It  is  admitted,  therefore,  that  a  certain  amount  of  manual 
training,  exercise  in  the  household  arts,  and  other  industrial 
features  of  the  school  which  have  been  introduced  without 
reference  to  the  promotion  of  industrial  efficiency  have,  if 
properly  directed,  a  real  value  not  fully  understood  or  appreci- 
ated. "While  work  and  habit  are  the  best  means  of  overcoming 
our  selfishness  and  indolence,  and  thus  leaving  the  way  free 
for  other  efforts,  especially  the  altruistic,  they  do  more  than 
this ;  they  produce  the  desire  to  be  good  and  moral."7  Aristotle 
said  that  habit  is  the  basis  of  virtue  and  that  acts  form  habits. 
"The  virtues  we  acquire  by  previous  practice  of  their  acts, 
exactly  as  we  acquire  our  knowledge  of  the  various  arts.  We 
become  masons,  for  instance,  by  building ;  and  harpers  by  play- 
ing on  the  harp.  And  so,  in  like  manner,  we  become  just  by 
doing  what  is  just,  temperate  by  doing  what  is  temperate,  and 
brave  by  doing  what  is  brave.  .  .  .  And,  indeed,  in  a 
word,  it  is  by  acts  of  like  nature  with  themselves  that  all  habits 
are  formed."8  Aristotle's  criterion  of  moral  training  was  the 
habits  that  were  formed  and  the  bent  that  was  given  the 
child's  activity  from  its  earliest  years.  Practical  training  of 
the  will  conditions  fundamentally  the  effectiveness  of  education, 
both  in  vocational  training  and  in  the  development  of  char- 
acter. Assuming  that  a  certain  training  in  personal  efficiency 
will  be  given,  we  shall  consider  the  virtues  that  should  be 
interwoven  into  the  moral  fiber  of  the  citizen. 


8  Cf.  Snedden,  D.,  Vocational  Training,    op.  cit.,  pp.  3,  4. 

•  Hall,  G.  S.,  Educational  Problems.     New  York,  1911,  Vol.  I.,  p.  295. 

7  Kerschensteiner,  op.  cit,  p.  55. 

8  Nicomachean  Ethics,  translated  from  Bekker's  text  by  Williams,  R.     Lon- 
don, 1879,  Bk.  II,  p.  30. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   QUALITIES   OP   CITIZENSHIP 

The  essence  of  character  lies  in  the  power  and  strength  of 
independent  determination  guided  by  proper  motivation.  The 
sphere  of  moral  conduct  includes  thoughts,  emotions,  purposes, 
and  external  conduct.  Virtues  make  character.  All  virtues  are 
to  be  exalted.  Foremost  among  them,  both  from  the  personal 
and  social  point  of  view  as  forming  both  the  condition  and 
the  inspiration  of  the  strictly  civic  virtues  by  furnishing  ideals 
and  motives  to  dominate  material  values  and  sanctions,  we 
name  the  fundamental  virtues  of  faith,  hope,  and  charity, J 
regarded  purely  as  natural  virtues,  and  then,  the  heightened 
value  of  these  same  natural  virtues  when  suffused  with  the 
corresponding  supernatural  qualities. 

The  faith  of  man  in  his  fellow-man  is  both  the  foundation 
and  the  bond  of  society  and  of  social  solidarity.  Without  it 
there  would  be  social  disruption,  as  individuals  are  mutually 
dependent  upon  each  other  for  their  material  needs  as  well  as 
for  social  law  and  order.  In  the  simplest  and  in  the  most 
important  and  intricate  affairs  of  life,  man  is  linked  and 
bound  to  the  individuals  of  his  community  by  social  obliga- 
tions which  he  cannot  repudiate.  But  social  obligation  is  a 
meaningless  phrase  to  a  man  without  an  undying  faith  in  the 
essential  integrity  of  his  fellow-man.  Social  life  has  its  vitality 
in  the  faith  of  man  in  his  fellows.  Trust  in  man's  word  is  an 
indispensable  condition  of  society.  The  huge  system  of  credit 
which  forms  so  great  a  part  of  the  machinery  of  trade  and 
commerce  is  based  upon  human  trust.  Mutual  confidence  con- 
ditions absolutely  the  launching  of  industrial  enterprises.  But 
far  above  the  consideration  of  faith  as  an  economic  virtue  is 
its  value  as  a  social  and  moral  virtue.  Man  trusts  the  loyalty 
of  a  friend  or  a  brother;  he  believes  in  the  virtue  of  his  parents 
and  he  gives  them  a  sacrificing  devotion  which  the  certainty 
of  evidence  could  not  increase.  "All  heroic  conduct  springs 
from  the  confidence  which  comes  of  faith.  Knowledge  does  not 
suffice;  for  what  will  be  the  outcome  of  a  given  series  of  human 
acts  cannot  be  known,  and  must  be  taken  on  trust."10 


9  Cf.  Shields,  T.  E.,  "Some  Relations  between  the  Catholic  School  and  the 
Public  School  System,"  The  Catholic  Educational  Review,  Vol.  XII,  p.  144. 

10  Spalding,  J.'  L.,  Things  of  the  Mind.     Chicago,  1894,  p.  190. 

10 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  11 

Faith  in  a  man's  integrity  may  be  at  times  a  sufficient  moral 
stimulus  to  evoke  his  honest  action,  so  potent  is  the  power  ot 
suggestion  upon  the  mind.  It  is  a  strong  constructive  force  of 
society.  Conversely,  distrust  of  a  neighbor  is  a  dissolving  force 
of  the  bonds  of  solidarity,  tending  to  disintegrate  society  into 
an  aggregate  of  warring  atoms.  Romanes  says:  "What  a 
terrible  hell  science  would  have  made  of  the  world  if  she  had 
abolished  the  spirit  of  faith  in  human  relations."11  Faith  in 
fellow-man  is  a  quality  which  makes  for  a  frankness,  sincerity, 
and  simplicity  of  character  entirely  consistent  with  deep 
thinking,  wide  knowledge,  cultivated  sympathies;  it  is  the 
basic  condition  of  the  bond  of  fellowship  and  of  all  right 
human  relations.  From  the  viewpoint  of  reason  alone,  inde- 
pendent of  supernatural  teaching,  faith  in  fellow-man  is  the 
principle  underlying  the  doctrine  of  the  brotherhood  of  man. 

The  natural  reason  for  human  faith  is  the  principle  of  the 
essential  equality  and  dignity  of  man,  with  his  gifts  of  reason 
and  free  will  enabling  him  to  act  with  his  fellows.  The 
appreciation  of  this  equality  will  be  in  proportion  to  his  insight 
into  what  is  deepest  and  noblest  in  human  nature.  Here 
Christian  teaching  illumines  the  philosophical  valuation  of 
man.  To  contemplate  the  nature  of  the  human  soul  stamped 
with  the  Divine  Image  which  endows  it  with  the  potentialities 
of  its  spiritual  nature;  to  contemplate  all  men  forming  one 
great  brotherhood  with  God  as  their  Father,  each  the  object  of 
His  personal  love,  and  each  purchased  at  a  great  price  for 
an  eternal  destiny  which  human  understanding  is  unable  to 
appreciate:  these  considerations  heighten  and  deepen  a  man's 
faith  in  his  fellow-man,  elevate  his  motives  to  a  supernatural 
plane,  and  strengthen  them  by  supernatural  sanctions.  "Where 
are  the  true  sources  of  human  dignity,  of  liberty,  and  of  modern 
democracy  if  not  in  the  notion  of  the  Infinite,  before  Whom 
all  men  are  equal?"12  Divine  faith  quickening  and  energizing 
human  faith  increases  the  potent  influence  of  man's  faith  in 
man  upon  all  human  relations. 


11  Romanes,  G.  F.,  Thoughts  on  Religion,  Chicago,  1895,  p.  150. 

18  "Ou  sont  les  vraies  sources  de  la  dignit6  humaine,  de  la  liberte1  et  de  la 
democratic  moderne,  sinon  dans  la  notion  de  1'Infini  devant  laquelle  tous  les 
hommes  sont  6gaux?"  Pasteur,  L.,  "Address  to  the  Academic  franyaise," 
quoted  by  Chatterton-Hill,  G.,  The  Sociological  Value  of  Chrittianity .  Lon- 
don, 1912,  p.  XV. 


12  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

Hope  is  an  essential  virtue  for  the  citizen  and  is  begotten 
of  faith  in  his  neighbor.  Faith  and  trust  in  the  sincerity  of 
man's  social  relationships  furnish  the  basis  of  his  hope  in  the 
permanence  of  the  State  and  in  the  perpetuity  of  her  institu- 
tions. Faith  leads  to  hope,  and  hope  vivifies  faith.  The  virtue 
of  hope  is  necessary  to  strengthen  man  in  resisting  the  pressure 
and  tyranny  which  come  from  the  forces  about  him  and  from 
the  inclinations  within  him.  ''Combats  without,  fears  within," 
said  Saint  Paul.13  Just  as  in  the  life  of  the  spirit  the  vision 
of  the  prophet  and  the  creation  of  the  artist  have  a  value  far 
above  that  of  material  things,  so  in  the  life  of  the  citizen  hope 
has  a  value  to  sustain  his  aspirations  above  the  dull  uniformity 
of  the  daily  round  of  duties.  The  instinct  which  urges  man 
to  seek  happiness  in  all  his  conscious  acts  shows  that  his 
greatest  desire  is  happiness.  Some  men  seek  it  in  wealth; 
others  in  honors;  some  in  devotion  to  family  and  friends; 
others  in  service  of  humanity.  Some  seek  it  for  this  life;  others 
for  the  life  to  come.  The  object  which  one  seeks  becomes  to 
him  an  object  of  hope.  But  "the  slothful  man  saith :  there  is 
a  lion  in  the  way."14  Therefore,  the  virtue  of  hope  is  necessary 
to  keep  the  purpose  strong  in  the  face  of  trials  and  temptations. 
Hope  presupposes  the  desire  of  an  end,  difficult  and  uncertain. 
Essentially,  it  consists  in  excluding  uncertainty  from  con- 
sciousness and  in  cherishing  a  courageous  outlook  in  the  face 
of  difficulties.  It  is,  therefore,  a  direct  exercise  of  the  will 
and  is  a  mainspring  of  activity  and  progress. 

Natural  hope  cannot  persist  in  the  face  of  repeated  failures. 
Nothing  lessens  the  desire  to  advance  as  does  the  want  of 
prospects.  With  hope  abandoned,  no  stimulus  for  improve 
ment  remains.  The  pressure  that  the  idealizing  value  of  hope 
lays  upon  conduct  may  be  seen  in  the  idealism  of  the  Greeks, 
who  created  the  splendid  vision  of  the  Olympic  gods  to  refresh 
themselves  after  weariness  and  fatigue,  a  vision  which  sus- 
tained them  amid  the  sufferings  of  the  world.15  The  virtue  of 
Christian  hope  has  for  its  object  the  reality  of  the  blessed 
vision  of  God.  It  becomes  a  great  moral  force,  supporting 
man  steadily  and  perseveringly  along  the  road  of  suffering  and 

13 II.  Corinthians,  VII,  5. 

14  Proverbs,  XXVI,  13. 

15  Cf.  Chatterton-Hill,  G.,  op.  cit.,  p.  209. 


Pedagogical  Value  of   Willingness  13 

sacrifice.  It  gives  a  new  direction  to  his  efforts  and  helps 
him  to  rise  above  self  to  attain  this  Blessed  Vision.  He  is 
willing  to  forego  the  greatest  present  enjoyment  to  win  the 
object  of  his  hope.  The  discouragement  that  springs  from  a 
man's  sense  of  failure  or  weakness  will  be  overcome  by  the 
hope  that  in  the  moment  of  need,  God  will  strengthen  him. 
"I  can  do  all  things  in  Him  Who  strengtheneth  me."16  The 
virtue  of  hope  may  be  entirely  independent  of  the  natural 
disposition,  and  should  be  studiously  cultivated.  Above  this 
natural  virtue,  reinforcing  it  and  furnishing  motives  of  far 
greater  buoyancy  and  an  energy  of  undying  attraction,  is  the 
supernatural  virtue  of  hope  based  upon  the  promises  of  Christ. 
Man's  love  for  his  fellow-man  is,  and  of  necessity  must  be, 
the  bond  of  Christian  society.  It  springs  from  his  faith  and 
hope  in  his  fellow-man,  and  in  their  deepest  roots  the  three 
virtues  are  connected.  Love  of  man  presupposes  faith  in  him ; 
if  not  in  the  existence  of  actual  virtues,  at  least  in  the  potencies 
of  his  nature.  Man  is  by  nature  a  social  being  with  the  social 
instinct.  Integration  is  the  fundamental  condition  of  social 
life.  The  strongest  integrating  principle  is  love.  "It  is  not 
enough  for  peace  and  concord  to  be  preserved  among  men  by 
precepts  of  justice  unless  there  be  a  further  consolidation  of 
mutual  love."17  In  man  are  both  the  egoistic  and  the  altruistic 
instincts.  It  is  the  work  of  education  to  adjust  these  two 
germinal  tendencies;  to  cherish  a  cheerful  devotion  to  others 
and  at  the  same  time  to  preserve  the  power  of  moral  self- 
assertion.  Left  to  himself,  man  would  seek  only  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  egoistic  impulse  which  has  its  roots  deepest  in  his 
nature.  Yet  in  the  life  of  the  citizen,  the  continual  subordina- 
tion of  the  interests  of  the  self-centered  instinct  to  the  larger 
interest  of  humanity  must  be  secured.  The  altruistic  feeling 
must  increase  and  dominate  the  egoistic  impulse  to  such  a 
degree  that  it  will  flow  out  through  social  life.  This  is  the 
crux  of  the  question — how  can  the  interests  of  the  individual 
and  of  society  be  reconciled?  It  is  manifest  that  the  two  are 
irreconcilable  on  any  rational  basis.  According  to  Benjamin 


16  Philippians,  V,  13. 

17  Saint  Thomas,  Of  God  and  Big  Creatures,  translated  by  Rickahy,  Jos.,  S 
J.,  London,  1905,  p.  295. 


14  Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness 

Kidd,18  George  Chatterton-Hill,10  F.  W.  Foerster,*0  and  others, 
that  conduct  which  subordinates  the  personal  interests  to  the 
social  interests  is  inspired  only  by  the  supernatural  sanctions. 
The  arguments  of  these  writers  for  the  objective  value  of 
religion  are,  however,  a  vindication  of  Christianity  purely 
from  its  pragmatic  side. 

That  egoism  is  the  innate  impulse  is  certain,  and  altruism  is 
developed  in  proportion  as  man  conceives  his  fellow-men  as 
beings  of  the  same  nature  as  himself,  thinking  and  feeling  as 
he  thinks  and  feels.  As  the  estimate  of  the  value  of  his  fellow- 
men  grows,  and  the  conception  of  the  relation  between  the 
individual  and  the  community  becomes  clearer,  his  sympathy 
grows.  To  prepare  the  way  for  altruism  has  been  the  work 
of  Christianity,  which  teaches  the  equality  of  man  before  God 
and  the  value  of  the  individual  soul  by  virtue  of  its  immor- 
tality, and  which  places  upon  every  one  the  command,  ''Love 
thy  neighbor  as  thyself."21  "No  one  is  aware  how  deeply  and 
from  the  beginning  that  precept  [of  charity]  has  been  im- 
planted in  the  breast  of  Christians,  and  what  abundant  fruits 
of  concord,  mutual  benevolence,  piety,  patience,  and  fortitude 
it  has  produced."22  Selfishness  obscures  the  great  notes  of 
social  duty,  and  unless  it  is  restrained  it  becomes  an  instru- 
ment of  social  disintegration.  It  is  conquered  by  religion,  which 
by  its  message  of  the  Cross  touches  the  deepest  springs  of 
conduct  and  awakens  the  desire  of  self-sacrifice  which  lies  in 
potentia  in  the  depths  of  every  human  heart.  "It  is  the  love 
of  one's  fellow-man  deified  in  the  Person  of  Christ,  and  not 
the  vague  demands  of  honor  fashioned  by  dim-sighted  justice, 
which  can  counteract  the  promptings  of  cupidity  and  the 
claims  of  selfishness."23  Christian  charity  subordinates  the 
individual  aims  to  social  aims,  and  at  the  same  time  recog- 
nizes the  dignity  of  the  individual  irrespective  of  his  social 
position.  It  is  the  bond  of  fraternity  through  communion  with 
Christ  which  rises  beyond  the  limits  of  society  to  seek  for  a 


18  Cf.  Social  Evolution.     New  York,  1894,  passim. 

19  Cf.  The  Sociological  Value  of  Christianity,  op.  cit.,  passim. 

20  Cf.  Marriage  and  the  Sex  Problem,  translated  by  Booth,  M.,  New  York, 
1912,  passim. 

21  Cf.  Kerschensteiner,  G.,  op.  cit.,  p.  51. 

22  Pope  Leo  XIII,  Encyclical   Letter,  "Sapientiae  Christianae,"   The  Pope 
and  the  People,  London,  1912,  p.  174. 

23  Wright,  T.,  Christian  Citizenship,      London,  1914,  p.  20. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  15 

higher  sanction  for  conduct  in  the  Source  of  Inexhaustible 
Good.  ''Human  solidarity  bids  us  love  our  brothel's  as  our- 
selves, by  reason  of  our  common  humanity;  Christian  charity 
decrees  that  we  love  these  by  reason  of  the  divinity  in  which 
we  alike  participate.  Human  solidarity  demands  of  us  that 
we  help  others  to  realize  in  themselves  the  ideal  of  the  upright 
man ;  Christian  charity  imposes  on  us  the  duty  of  aiding  others 
to  become  not  manly  alone,  but  God-like.  Once  more,  human 
solidarity  visualizes  all  things  from  the  bounds  of  the  earthly 
horizon,  and  aims  at  the  victory  of  manhood;  Christian  charity 
opens  up  for  us  the  heavenly  horizon,  and  would  have  us, 
through  this  human  victory,  win  God  for  others  and  for 
ourselves."2* 

Because  of  the  essential  spirituality  of  man's  nature,  faith, 
hope  and  charity  form  the  groundwork  of  man's  character. 
Faith  in  fellow-man  establishes  mutual  trust.  Hope  sustains 
effort.  In  hoping,  man  loves  what  he  holds  by  faith.  These 
virtues  inspire  the  spirit  which  should  characterize  man  in  all 
his  relationships — of  the  family,  of  the  community,  and  of 
the  State.  They  are  actualized  in  proportion  as  the  will  en- 
lightened by  the  ideal  draws  upon  the  energy  of  the  emotional 
nature  to  sustain  its  efforts.  Faith,  hope,  and  charity  as  super- 
natural virtues  do  not  supersede  the  natural  virtues  but  suf- 
fuse them  with  light  and  give  them  limitless  energy  from  an 
Infinite  Source. 

The  three  virtues,  faith,  hope,  and  love,  form  the  fruitful 
source  of  the  strictly  civic  virtues,  namely,  reverence  for  law, 
self-control,  and  patriotism  or  willingness  for  disinterested 
service.25  Systematic  training  in  these  virtues  is  as  important 
as  training  in  personal  efficiency  to  form  the  good  citizen. 
Efficiency  does  not  guarantee  good  citizenship.  When  it  is  not 
lifted  above  the  personal  satisfaction  derived  from  it,  in  either 
skill  or  profit,  it  contributes  purely  to  personal  advantage  and 
fosters  selfishness.  Such  individualism  is  scarcely  in  harmony 
with  the  spirit  of  cooperation,  which  is  so  vital  a  factor  in  civic 
life. 

Keverence  for  law  is  pre-eminently  a  civic  virtue  which  has  a 

S4  Gillet,  M.  S.,  O.P.,  The  Education  of  Character,  translated  by  Green,  B. 
New  York,  1914,  pp.  103-104. 

"  Cf.  Shields,  T.  E.,  op.  cit.,  p.  144. 


16  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

twofold  aspect,  as  seen  from  the  viewpoint  of  those  in  authority 
and  the  viewpoint  of  the  private  citizen.  What  is  needed  for 
the  legislator,  for  the  administrator,  and  for  the  interpreter  of 
law  is  a  deep  sense  of  its  inherent  value.  It  is  important  that 
they  realize  that  the  purpose  of  government  is  the  common 
good ;  that  the  basis  of  positive  law  is  the  natural  law  written 
in  the  hearts  of  men ;  that  the  primary  function  of  the  State  is 
to  particularize  by  law  the  rights  founded  in  nature;  that  upon 
them  lies  the  obligation  to  give  an  effective  sanction  to  the  law. 
Then  politics  will  be  invested  with  the  noble  function  of  pro- 
moting virtue  and  preventing  vice.  Then  will  be  realized  in 
fact  what  in  every  Christian  age  has  been  held  a  principle, 
''The  government  of  society  is  in  the  nature  of  a  trust,  and  those 
who  govern  are  in  the  position  of  trustees."26 

On  the  other  hand,  legislation  is  futile  unless  the  love  of  law 
is  planted  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  the  habit  of  obedience 
to  law  is  steadily  formed  in  the  citizens.  Coercion,  whether  of 
force  or  of  intimidation,  is  useless  to  secure  the  ends  of  legisla- 
tion. Public  sentiment  is  a  force  from  without  which  can  never 
secure  whole-hearted  loyalty.  The  spirit  of  obedience  is  an 
internal  force,  moving  the  will  to  act  in  accordance  with  con 
science  which  bears  witness  to  the  right  of  authority  and  the 
duty  of  obedience.  When  the  citizen  conceives  unrestrained 
liberty  as  the  destruction  of  peace  and  order,  and  law  as  the 
guardian  of  true  liberty,  and  the  legislation  of  the  State  as  the 
means  of  securing  it,  he  has  the  rational  basis  for  obedience  to 
law.  To  grasp  this  relationship  of  law  and  liberty  requires  an 
insight  into  social  conditions  and  intelligent  reflection  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  great  masses  of  men.  But  the  inherent  binding 
force  of  law  becomes  clear  and  inspires  obedience  when  the 
nature  and  source  of  civil  authority  is  known.  From  the  begin- 
ning, Christian  teaching  has  spoken  with  certainty :  "Let  every 
soul  be  subject  to  higher  powers :  for  there  is  no  power  but  from 
God :  and  those  -that  are,  are  ordained  of  God.  Therefore  he 
that  resisteth  the  power,  resisteth  the  ordinance  of  God.  And 
they  that  resist  purchase  to  themselves  damnation.  .  .  .  Where- 
fore be  subject  of  necessity,  not  only  for  wrath,  but  also  for 


"  Chatterton-Hill,  G.,  op.  cit.,  p.  102. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  17 

conscience'  sake."27  Religion  lends  the  support  of  its  high  sanc- 
tion to  the  law  of  the  State.  In  so  far  as  man  violates  the  law, 
provided  it  conforms  to  the  moral  law,  he  violates  the  moral  law 
itself.  Religion  quickens  civil  duty,  therefore,  by  giving  it  a 
supernatural  motive.  Obedience  to  law  and  to  those  in  author 
it}r  is  enjoined  upon  man's  conscience.  On  the  other  hand, 
those  who  govern  are  responsible  for  the  welfare  of  those  whom 
they  rule.  Civil  authority  is  by  delegation  from  God.  Saint 
Paul  insists  upon  the  responsibility  of  those  to  whom  is  com- 
mitted the  affairs  of  government  and  enjoins  obedience  to  them, 
adding,  "For  they  watch  as  being  to  render  an  account  of  your 
souls."28 

Self-control  is  as  essentially  a  civic  virtue  as  it  is  a  mora] 
virtue.  The  individual  is  the  only  reality  and  the  State  is  what 
its  citizens  are.  "That  State  is  undoubtedly  the  best  which 
can  form  the  most  powerful  unit  while  granting  the  greatest 
amount  of  personal  and  political  freedom  to  the  individual,  the 
family,  and  the  community."29  The  State  can  grant  liberty  to 
self -disciplined  citizens  because  they  are  trained  to  meet  respon- 
sibility which  is  the  correlative  of  freedom.  "Natura  obe- 
diendo  vincitur,"  Newton  said.  We  conquer  self  by  obeying  the 
principle  that  makes  us  truly  rational  beings.  This  principle 
is  that  in  the  conflict  between  man's  higher  and  lower  self  the 
higher  nature  shall  dominate.  The  economic  view  of  life  that 
material  prosperity  constitutes  happiness  has  furthered  greed 
and  a  disposition  to  seek  ease  and  softness  of  life,  resulting  in 
hedonism.  "The  greed  of  possession  and  the  thirst  for  pleasure 
are  twin  plagues  which  too  often  make  a  man  who  is  devoid  of 
restraint  miserable  in  the  midst  of  abundance."30  Rationalistic 
morality  is  limited  to  the  individual  during  his  lifetime,  and 
makes  the  greatest  amount  of  personal  pleasure  the  supreme 
object  of  life.  "Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  tomorrow  we  shall 
die,"31  is  the  basic  principle  and  the  summum  bonum  of  hedo- 
nistic philosophy. 

Effective  morality  is  inspired  by  a  principle  higher  than 


27  Romans,  XIII,  1,  2,  5. 

28  Hebrews,  XIII,  17. 

29  Kerschensteiner,  G.,  op.  cit.,  p.  22. 

30  Pope  Leo  XIII.,  "Rerum  Novarum,"  The  Pope  and  the  People,  op.  cit.,  p. 
196. 

31 1.  Corinthians,  XV,  32. 


18  Pedagogical  Value  of   Willingness 

human  reason.  "A  belief  in  the  spiritual  destiny  of  man 
.  .  .  is  the  first  necessity  in  arousing  and  developing  a 
spiritual  conscience  in  the  human  race,  a  sense  of  the  bounden 
duty  of  resisting  the  lower  self.  Unless  this  feeling  has  been 
brought  into  being,  morality  has  no  soul  in  which  to  take 
root."32  The  Christian  religion  furnishes  such  a  principle.  It 
teaches  that  kta  man's  life  doth  not  consist  in  the  abundance  of 
things  which  he  possesseth."33  "For  what  doth  it  profit  a 
man,  if  he  gain  the  whole  world,  and  suffer  the  loss  of  his  own 
soul?  Or  what  exchange  shall  a  man  give  for  his  soul?"34 
Christianity  does  more  than  give  ideals;  it  gives  the  strongest 
motive  possible  to  inspire  conduct,  for  it  furnishes  supernatural 
sanctions  and  opens  the  treasures  of  grace  and  places  Divine 
power  at  man's  call  to  help  him  in  the  struggle  to  overcome 
inherent  indolence  and  selfishness. 

A  third  civic  virtue  is  disinterested  patriotism,  the  essence  of 
which  is  a  devotion  to  the  common  good  of  sufficient  intensity 
to  function  as  disinterested  service.  It  flows  from  the  basic 
quality  of  love.  All  mutual  service  springs  from  the  bond  of 
charity.  Saint  Thomas  says:  "Since  the  love  of  parents  in- 
cludes the  love  of  kin,  in  the  love  of  country  is  embraced  the 
love  of  fellow-citizens  and  all  friends  of  our  country."35  "It  is 
precisely  because  the  State  is  bound  up  so  intimately  with  the 
homes  of  a  country — the  champion  of  their  liberty,  the  source 
of  their  corporate  well-being,  the  promoter  of  their  civilization, 
the  rivet  in  the  links  of  unity  welded  by  blood-ties,  a  common 
language,  and  national  traditions  and  customs — that  patriot- 
ism, the  love  of  our  fatherland,  really  consists  of  the  love  of  our 
fellow-citizens  and  all  friends  of  our  country."36 

Out  of  any  relations  into  which  men  enter,  there  spring  obli- 
gations binding  upon  each  party  to  the  relationship.  Man's 
duty  of  devotion  to  his  community  grows  out  of  his  relations  to 
others  as  a  member  of  society,  which  secures  to  each  individual 
opportunity  for  personal  development,  and  demands  from  him 
in  return  a  personal  responsibility  to  promote  its  well-being. 


32  Foerster,  F.  W.,  op.  cit.,  p.  131. 

33  Luke  XII,  15. 

34  Matthew  XVI,  26. 

™Summa  Theologica,  la,  Ilae,  Q  CI,  A.  1. 
36  Wright,  T.,  op.  cit.,  p.  61. 


Pedagogical   Value  of    Willingness  19 

There  is  much  confusion  of  mind  as  to  what  constitutes 
patriotism.  It  is  a  distorted  idea  of  this  civic  virtue  that  it 
consists  in  saluting  the  flag,  in  singing  "America"  and  "The 
Star  Spangled  Banner"  and  in  exalting  national  heroes.  These 
are  the  sign  and  symbol  of  patriotism  and  a  stimulus  to  patri- 
otic feeling,  and  have  their  place,  but  they  are  not  its  essence. 
The  characteristically  essential  note  of  patriotism  is  the  will- 
ingness to  subordinate  private  interests  to  the  public  good. 
The  problem  is  how  to  restrain  the  selfishness  of  the  individual 
and  to  strengthen  his  feeling  of  social  solidarity.  This  is  a 
world-old  problem.  Plato  attached  great  importance  to  devo- 
tion to  the  community,  and  he  criticized  the  politicians  in 
power  in  his  day.  Even  against  Pericles,  the  greatest  figure  of 
Athens,  he  brought  grave  indictment:  "Whom  has  he  made 
better?  For  we  have  admitted  that  this  is  the  statesman's 
proper  business.  And  we  must  ask  the  same  question  about 
Pericles,  and  Cimon,  and  Miltiades,  and  Themistocles.  Whom 
did  they  make  better?  Nay,  did  not  Pericles  make  the  citizens 
worse  ?  For  he  gave  them  pay,  and  at  first  he  was  very  popular 
with  them,  but  at  last  they  condemned  him  to  death.  .  .  . 
And  Pericles,  who  had  the  charge  of  man,  only  made  him 
wilder,  and  more  savage,  and  unjust,  and  therefore  he  could  not 
have  been  a  good  statesman."37 

The  same  problem  exists  today  in  an  acute  form.  Instead  of 
realizing  the  duty  of  assisting  the  State  to  fulfill  its  functions 
in  the  interests  of  the  community,  men  are  apt  to  look  upon  it 
as  the  artificial  creation  of  politicians  of  which  they  may 
remain  independent  at  will.  The  State  is  the  completion  of  the 
life  of  the  individual,  without  which  he  could  not  wholly  live, 
and  to  whose  interest  he  must  be  willing  to  sacrifice  his  own. 
Here  it  becomes  apparent  that  the  distinct  civic  spirit  is  impor- 
tant, and  that  the  moral  virtue  of  self-control  be  expanded  into 
the  civic  virtue  of  devotion  to  the  common  good.  By  the  civic 
spirit  is  meant  an  abiding  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  com- 
munity, city,  and  state,  and  a  sense  of  civic  obligation  derived 
from  the  general  sentiment  of  fraternity  towards  all  mankind, 


37  "Gorgias,"  Dialogues  of  Plato,  translated  by  Jowett,  B.     London,  1892, 
A.  515,  516. 


20  Pedagogical  Value  of   Willingness 

but  quite  distinct  from  such  sentiment.    It  is  the  sentiment 
which  constitutes  the  essence  of  public-spiritedness. 

Man's  feeling  of  citizenship  is  a  realizing  sense  that  his  per- 
sonal aims  and  objects  are  essential  constituents  of  the  pur- 
poses of  a  definitely  organized  community,  extending  from  his 
own  social  group  to  the  national  administration.  Personal 
interests  must  be  extended  to  general  interests.  The  citizen 
should  know  in  proportion  to  his  capacity  what  the  nation 
really  is,  what  things  are  vital  to  its  well-being,  and  what  his 
duty  to  it  is.  He  should  not  only  uphold  the  law,  but  he  should 
strive  to  improve  it  and  the  methods  of  applying  it,  all  of  which 
require  civic  preparation.  The  citizen  may  have  the  civic  intel- 
ligence, however,  and  yet  lack  the  civic  virtues.  "Civic  knowl- 
edge may  be  possessed  by  the  most  hardened  egotist  as  well  as 
by  the  most  arrant  rogue,  and  civic  virtues  may  be  found  where 
knowledge  of  the  work  and  workings  of  a  State  is  entirely 
absent."38  The  essential  aims  of  a  nursery  of  civic  virtue  should 
be  to  give  the  individual  a  proper  grasp  of  the  relation  between 
the  interests  of  the  individual  and  those  of  the  State,  but  more 
especially  to  give  the  spirit  of  the  willingness  for  disinterested 
service  and  to  force  the  individual  to  practice  it.  Once  this 
distinctly  civic  virtue  finds  place  in  the  natural  character,  the 
civic  responsibility  of  the  citizen  will  be  essentially  deepened. 
How  can  this  difficult  task  be  accomplished?  It  is  the  reap- 
pearance of  the  old  question,  how  can  the  interests  of  society 
and  of  the  individual  be  reconciled?  "The  needs  of  society  and 
the  needs  of  the  individual  can  be  satisfied  only  if  we  seek  out- 
side this  finite  life  for  a  principle  reconciling  the  two."39  Un- 
doubtedly, the  element  of  self-sacrifice  is  the  vital  factor  in  the 
solution  of  the  problem.  This  answer  leads  to  the  further 
problem  which  lies  at  the  heart  of  the  task  of  training  for 
disinterested  citizenship;  namely,  how  can  the  spirit  of  self- 
sacrifice  be  cultivated  in  the  school? 


38  Kerschensteiner,  G.,  op.  cit.,  pp.  97,  98. 

39  Chatterton-Hill,  op.  cit.,  p.  204. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    MEANS  OF  TRAINING  FOR   CITIZENSHIP  IN   THE    COLONIAL   AND 
TRANSITIONAL   SCHOOLS  OF  OUR   COUNTRY 

The  present  is  the  outcome  and  development  of  the  past.  A 
knowledge  of  the  basic  educational  elements  which  made  good 
citizens  in  the  germinal  past  of  our  country  should  illuminate 
the  present  complex  problem  of  how  to  educate  the  youth  to 
serve  the  interests  of  the  group.  There  was  no  national  spirit 
in  the  colonial  days,  but  there  was  heroic  devotion  to  the  general 
good  of  the  community.  That  the  colonists  were  filled  with  the 
spirit  of  constructive  citizenship  and  the  spirit  of  disinterest- 
edness, which  is  the  essence  of  true  patriotism,  is  an  unques- 
tioned fact,  which  warrants  an  inquiry  into  the  education  that 
must  have  contributed  in  some  degree  to  form  their  character; 
to  make  them  seek  the  fulfillment  of  duty  rather  than  self- 
aggrandizement  ;  to  make  them  men  who  preferred  the  common 
welfare  to  the  advancement  of  their  own  interests. 

The  educational  facilities  of  the  colonists  were  primitive.  To 
enter  upon  a  full  account  of  their  schools  is  entirely  beyond  the 
scope  of  the  present  paper,  which  is  concerned  only  with  civic- 
education.  Only  in  so  far  as  a  consideration  of  general  educa- 
tion illuminates  the  special  problem  of  training  for  citizenship 
does  it  lie  within  the  province  of  this  inquiry.  The  principle 
that  the  education  of  a  free  people  is  the  essential  condition  of 
the  preservation  of  its  liberties  was  widely  held  in  the  colonial 
period,  but  there  was  not  a  glimpse  of  specific  training  for 
citizenship.  Although  we  are  directly  concerned  with  the 
teaching  of  disinterested  patriotism,  yet,  inasmuch  as  the  moral 
interests  of  life  are  the  deepest  and  most  far-reaching  influences 
upon  conduct,  all  moral  education  and  character  building  is 
intimately  related  to  specific  civic  education.  "To  isolate  the 
formal  relationship  of  citizenship  from  the  whole  system  of 
relations  with  which  it  is  actually  interwoven ;  to  suppose  that 
there  is  some  one  particular  study  or  mode  of  treatment  which 
can  make  a  child  a  good  citizen ;  to  suppose,  in  other  words, 
that  a  good  citizen  is  anything  more  than  a  thoroughly  efficient 
and  serviceable  member  of  society,  one  with  all  his  powers  of 

21 


22  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

body  and  mind  under  control,  is  a  hampering  superstition 
which  it  is  hoped  may  soon  disappear  from  educational  discus- 
sion."40 The  citizen  must  be  a  good  man  in  order  to  be  a  good 
citizen. 

The  earliest  impulses  which  education  in  the  colonies  received 
came  from  several  sources,  corresponding  to  the  type  of  colonist. 
They  had  all  come  from  Europe.  They  founded  schools  patterned 
closely  after  those  of  the  country  from  which  they  themselves 
had  come.  "The  seventeenth  century  was,  therefore,  for  Ameri- 
can education  distinctly  a  period  of  'transplantation  of  schools/ 
with  little  or  no  conscious  change;  and  it  is  only  toward  the 
middle  of  the  next  century,  as  new  social  and  political  condi- 
tions were  evolving,  .  .  .  that  there  are  evident  the  gradual 
modification  of  European  ideals  and  the  differentiation  of 
American  schools  toward  an  ideal  of  their  own."41 

The  first  schools  were  those  of  the  Spanish  Franciscans  in 
Florida  and  New  Mexico,  which  were  in  existence  in  1629,  four 
years  before  the  establishment  of  the  oldest  school  in  the  thir- 
teen eastern  colonies.42  These  were,  therefore,  the  first  elemen- 
tary schools  in  the  present  territory  of  the  United  States. 

Permanency  of  education,  however,  which  is  a  prerequisite  of 
organized  educational  effort,  began  in  the  eastern  colonies,  and 
there  three  types  of  school  organization  found  place:  (1)  The 
parochial  system  in  New  Netherlands  and  the  other  middle 
colonies.  ('2)  The  laissez  faire*  method  in  Virginia  and  the 
four  other  southern  colonies.  (3)  The  governmental  system  in 
Massachusetts  and  most  of  the  other  New  England  colonies.41 
The  colonists  had  come  to  America  to  establish  institutions  in 
conformity  with  their  own  ideals.  Religious  interests  domi- 
nated, and  education  was  formed  almost  without  exception  on 
a  religious  basis. 

The  earliest  of  these  educational  foundations  was  made  in 
New  Amsterdam  in  1633  by  the  Dutch,44  where,  besides  reading, 


40  Dewey,  J.,  Moral  Principles  in  Education.     Boston,  1900,  p.  9. 

41  Graves,  F.  P.,  A  Student's  History  of  Education.     New  York.  IS  15,  p.  188. 

42  Cf.  Burns,  J.  A.,   The  Catholic  System  in  the  United  States.     New  York, 
1908,  p.  39.     Cf.  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1903,  Vol.  I,  p.  555. 

*  We  accept  the  use  of  this  term  not  in  the  sense  of  indifference,  but  rather 
in  the  sense  of  lack  of  system  due  to  geographic  and  social  conditions. 

43  Cf.  Graves,  F.  P.,  op.  cit.,  p.  190. 

44  Cf.  Dexter,  C.  G.,  History  of  Education  in  the  United  States.     New  York, 
1904,  p.  12. 


Pedagogical   Value  of  Willingness  23 

writing,  and  ciphering,  catechism  and  the  prayers  of  the  Ke- 
formed  Church  were  taught.  Wherever  a  church  was  built, 
there  in  its  shadow  was  the  school.  This  parochial  system  was 
characterized  by  a  distribution  of  control  between  Church  and 
State.  The  church  was  granted  the  right  to  examine  teachers, 
enforce  the  religious  test,  and  make  the  appointments;  the 
legal  support  was  vested  in  the  civil  authorities.45  In  the 
opinion  of  some  historians  of  education,  the  parochial  system 
of  New  Netherlands  gave  the  principle  of  free  universal  educa- 
tion in  our  country.40  With  the  conquest  of  this  colony  by  the 
English  in  1674,  the  parochial  system  was  supplanted  by  the 
laissez  faire  method  that  prevailed  in  the  southern  colonies.47 
After  the  English  took  possession  of  New  York,  the  largest 
provision  for  elementary  schools  in  the  colony  was  made  by  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts, 
which  had  been  organized  in.  England  to  promote  Christian 
knowledge  by  erecting  catechetical  schools  and  diffusing  the 
Scriptures  and  the  liturgy  of  the  Established  Church.  At  the 
time  of  the  Revolution,  it  maintained  more  than  twenty  schools 
in  New  York,48  and  had  spread  to  all  the  other  colonies  except 
Virginia,  where  its  work  was  not  thought  necessary.  While 
discriminating  against  other  denominations,  it  manifested 
great  zeal  in  extending  the  education  and  religion  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church  in  the  colonies.49  After  1750,  on  account  of  the 
bitter  opposition  of  the  colonists  to  the  society,  owing  to  its 
royalist  sympathies,  it  abandoned  its  schools.  In  1806  the 
"Society  for  Establishing  Free  Schools  in  the  City  of  New 
York"  was  incorporated,  and  it  founded  the  first  free  school 
for  children  who  were  not  provided  for  by  any  religion  or 
society,  with  the  aim  to  inculcate  the  truths  of  religion  and 
morality  contained  in  Holy  Scriptures.50  For  more  than  thirty 


46  Cf.  Ibid.,  p.  15;  Graver,  op.  cit.,  194. 

48  Cf.  Dexter,  op.  cit.,  p.  14;  Draper,  Andrew,  "Public  School  Pioneering 
in  New  York  and  Massachusetts,"  Educational  Review,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  314. 

47  Cf.  Graves,  F.  P.,  op.  cit.,  pp.  194-95. 

48  Cf.  Boone,  R.  G.,  Education  in  the  United  States.     New  York,  1890,  p.  53. 

49  Cf.  Graves,  F.  P.,  op.  cit.,  pp.  235-86;  Parker,  S.  C.,  The  History  of  Modern 
Elementary  Education.     Boston,  1912,  p.  228. 

80  Cf.  Parker,  S.  C.,  op.  cit.,  pp.  243-45;  Hall,  A.  J.,  Religious  Education  in 
the  Public  Schools  of  the  State  and  City  of  New  York.  Chicago  University, 
1914,  pp.  22-40. 


24  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

years  the  society  received  funds  from  the  State  to  carry  on  its 
work.  During  the  same  interval,  and  on  the  same  grounds  and 
for  the  same  purpose,  Hebrews,  Presbyterians,  Methodists,  and 
Catholics  applied  to  the  legislature  for  funds.  In  1842,  after 
a  controversy  of  twenty  years,  the  legislature  enacted  a  law 
to  the  effect  that  no  portion  of  the  school  funds  was  to  be  given 
to  any  school  in  which  religious  sectarian  doctrine  should  be 
taught.  In  1853  the  Public  School  Society  transferred  its 
property  to  the  city  Board  of  Education.51 

In  colonial  Pennsylvania,  elementary  education  remained 
entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  church  and  neighborhood  organiza 
tions,  all  actuated  by  religious  motives.  The  second  general 
assembly  of  the  colony  in  1683  passed  a  law  requiring  that  all 
children  be  taught,  so  that  at  the  age  of  twelve  they  could  read 
the  Scriptures  and  write.  Owing  to  the  conflicting  religious 
interests  of  the  cosmopolitan  population,  the  law  was  nor 
enforced.  The  tolerant  attitude  of  the  Quaker  government  had 
attracted  a  great  many  religious  immigrants.  These  included 
Methodists,  Baptists,  Presbyterians,  Lutherans,  and  others. 
In  the  eastern  part  of  the  State  each  denomination  set  up  a 
school  in  connection  with  the  church.  The  church  school 
organization  of  Pennsylvania  was  similar,  therefore,  to  that  of 
New  Netherlands,  except  that  there  were  several  parochial  sys- 
tems instead  of  one.  In  the  western  part,  where  the  population 
was  more  sparse  and  the  communities  were  of  a  more  hetero- 
geneous character,  neighborhood  schools  were  established  by 
the  cooperation  and  voluntary  subscription  of  a  few  families. 
The  parochial  schools  and  the  neighborhood  schools  continued 
in  operation,  and  furnished  nearly  all  the  elementary  education 
in  Pennsylvania  until  1834,  when  a  state  educational  system 
was  established.52  That  religion  was  a  strong  force  in  the  lives 
of  the  people  of  the  colony  is  evidenced  by  the  opposition  which 
they  raised  to  this  public  school  legislation.  "Several  religious 
denominations,  almost  in  a  body,  placed  themselves  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  new  law.  The  Catholics  and  the  Episcopalians,  who 
have  in  later  years  most  favored  parochial  schools,  were  then 


60  Cf.  Parker,  p.  246.     Cf.  Hall,  op.  cit.,  p.  61;  Laws  of  New  York,  1842,  pp. 
187,  188. 
62  Parker,  S.  C.,  op.  cit.,  pp.  62,  63.     Graves,  F.  P.,  op.  cit.,  pp.  195,  262. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  25 

too  weak  and  too  much  scattered  to  make  effective  opposition, 
if  they  were  so  disposed;  but  the  Friends,  the  Lutherans,  the 
Reformed,  and  the  Mennonites,  with  many  notable  Low  Church 
exceptions,  wherever  sufficiently  numerous  to  form  congrega- 
tions, very  generally  united  in  voting  against  the  free  school 
law  and  taxes  for  free  schools.  But  what  went  hardest  with 
most  of  them  was  to  sever  the  tie  that  had  bound  them  in  one 
church  and  school,  to  divorce  what,  in  their  view,  God  had 
joined  together,  to  secularize  the  school  and  be  compelled  to 
educate  their  children  where  they  could  receive  no  positive 
religious  education.53  The  population  of  the  two  remaining 
middle  colonies,  New  Jersey  and  Delaware,  were  cosmopolitan, 
and  the  same  conditions  obtained  as  in  Pennsylvania.  The 
parochial  school  was  established  by  some  of  the  denominations 
in  those  colonies,  but  the  laissez  faire  method  prevailed.54 

Virginia  stands  as  the  type  of  the  aristocratic  colonies  of  the 
South,  which  reproduced,  in  a  measure,  the  distinction  of 
classes  found  in  England.  A  marked  division  existed  between 
the  land  owners  and  the  masses,  which  included  indentured 
servants  and  other  dependents.  Accordingly,  the  means  of 
education  for  each  class  differed.  The  classical  secondary  and 
higher  education  was  provided  for  the  upper  classes,  but  there 
was  very  little  elementary  training,  except  in  private  dame 
schools  and  the  catechetical  training  by  the  clergy.  Besides 
these  forms,  there  were  the  tutorial  system,  both  elementary 
and  secondary,  for  the  children  of  the  wealthy,  and  some  form 
of  the  old  English  industrial  training,  through  apprenticeship, 
for  orphans  and  children  of  the  poor.55  Yet  we  infer  from  the 
legislation  which  is  recorded  on  the  statute  books  for  1646  that 
there  must  have  been  a  number  of  elementary  schools  in  opera- 
tion in  Virginia,  or  else  that  elementary  training  was  common 
in  the  home :  "All  overseers  and  guardians  of  such  orphans  are 
enjoined  by  the  authority  aforesaid  to  educate  and  instruct 
them  according  to  their  best  endeavors  in  Christian  religion  and 
in  rudiments  of  learning,  and  to  provide  for  them  necessaries 


83  Wickersham,  J.   P.,   History  of  Education  in  Pennsylvania.     Lancaster, 
1886,  pp.  319,  320. 

54  Cf.  Graves,  F.  P.,  History  of  Education.     New  York,  1915,  p.  103. 
«  Cf.  Ibid.,  p.  83.     Parker,  S.  C.,  op.  cit.,  p.  307. 


26  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

according  to  the  competence  of  their  estates."56  Fiske,  writing 
of  compulsory  education,  says :  "There  was,  after  1846,  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  compulsory  education  in  Virginia,  much 
more  than  is  generally  supposed,  since  the  records  of  it  have 
been  buried  in  the  parish  vestry  books.  In  the  eighteenth 
century  we  find  evidences  that  pains  were  taken  to  educate 
colored  people.  In  the  'old  field  schools'  little  more  was  taught 
than  the  three  R's,  but  these  humble  institutions  are  not  to  be 
despised,  for  it  was  in  one  of  them  that  George  Washington 
learned  to  read,  write,  and  cipher."57  In  keeping  with  English 
precedents,  the  children  of  the  poor,  wards,  and  oprhans  were 
taught  a  trade  by  the  masters  to  whom  they  were  indentured. 
The  nearest  approach  to  the  elementary  school  was  the  planta- 
tion "field  school,"  founded  by  the  voluntary  cooperation  of  a 
group  of  neighbors  and  supported  by  tuition  fees.58  While  the 
great  majority  of  the  children  were  attending  denominational, 
private,  and  field  schools,  a  system  of  subsidies  was  established 
by  legislation  in  the  literary  fund  for  public  education.  This 
policy  of  subsidization  was  regarded  as  an  effective  means  of 
educating  public  opinion  for  the  promotion  of  schools.59 

In  Maryland  educational  activity  began  in  1634.  In  Lord 
Baltimore's  party  were  two  Jesuit  Fathers  who  started  at  once 
to  teach  the  Indians.  The  bequests  for  the  establishment  and 
endowment  of  free  schools  point  to  the  existence  of  such  institu- 
tions where  reading,  writing,  ciphering,  and  Christian  Doctrine 
were  taught.60  Catholic  missionary  and  parochial  schools  have 
played  an  important  part  in  the  educational  history  of  the 
State,  the  first  of  the  former  for  the  Indians  having  been  estab- 
lished as  early  as  1677.'1  The  persecution  of  the  Catholics 
after  1689  closed  their  schools.  An  act  of  the  legislature  in 
3704  imposed  upon  Catholics  who  should  keep  school  or  take 


66  Clews,  E.  W.,  Educational  Legislation  and  Administration  of  the  Colonial 
Governments.     New  York,  1899,  p.  355. 

67  Fiske,  John,  Old  Virginia  and  Her  Neighbors,  Vol.  II.     Boston,  1890,  p. 
226. 

K  Cf.  Graves,  F.  P.,  History  of  Education.     New  York,  1915.  p.  85. 

M  Cf.  Ibid.,  p.  88. 

•°  Cf.  Davis,  G.  L.,  The  Day-star  of  American  Freedom.  New  York,  1855, 
pp.  146-47.  Neill,  E.  D.,  The  Foundation  of  Maryland.  Albany,  1876,  pp 
91-97,  127-129. 

$1  Dexter,  E.  G.,  op.  cit.,  p.  65. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  27 

upon  themselves  the  education,  government,  or  boarding  of 
youth,  the  penalty  of  transportation  to  England.62  In  1<>96  a 
serious  endeavor  had  been  made  by  the  colony  to  support 
schools  in  every  county  by  direct  taxation.  Eight  years  later 
the  fund  was  increased  by  a  duty  upon  imports  and  exports. 
The  plan,  however,  met  with  but  little  success  before  the 
Revolution.63 

South  of  Virginia  there  were  no  schools  until  after  the  begin- 
ning of  the  eighteenth  century.  In  the  Carolinas  during  the 
first  half  of  that  century,  schools  of  a  religious  nature  were 
founded  in  connection  with  churches.  In  Georgia  the  principal 
educational  efforts  before  the  Revolution  were  in  the  nature  of 
mission  schools  for  the  Indians  and  a  charitable  school  for 
orphans.64  It  was  the  policy  of  the  southern  colonists  to  leave 
the  elementary  instruction  to  the  family.  Here,  as  in  the 
middle  colonies,  the  people,  instead  of  gathering  into  towns, 
as  those  in  New  England  were  required  by  law  to  do,  settled 
widely  apart.  '"In  the  later  colonial  days  it  was  common  for 
southern  gentlemen  to  send  abroad  for  university  educated  men, 
who  were  duly  installed  as  teachers  in  their  families.  At  an 
earlier  time,  it  was  still  more  common  in  southern  states  for 
heads  of  families  to  buy  teachers  in  the  market  as  the  Romann 
bought  them  in  the  days  of  Cicero,  such  teachers  being  com- 
monly redemptioners,  men  who  had  sold  their  services  for  a 
term  of  years  to  a  shipmaster  in  payment  for  their  transporta- 
tion to  America,  but  sometimes,  also,  convicts  who  had  been 
expatriated.  It  was  common,  too,  in  the  South,  and  in  a  less 
degree  in  the  middle  states,  for  leading  families  to  send  their 
sons  abroad  to  be  educated."65  Of  the  southern  colonies  Dr. 
Boone  writes :  "It  cannot  be  said  that  any  of  the  colonies  were 
indifferent  to  education  of  any  grade  any  more  than  they  were 
to  the  claims  of  religion  and  individual  honesty.  But  to  some 
of  them  these  were  not  matters  of  public  control.  It  was  not 


62  Cf.  Shea,  J.  G.,  History  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  United  Stain.     New 
York,  1886,  Vol.  I.,  p.  358. 

63  Cf.  Dexter,  op.  cit.,  p.  65.     Graves,  History  of  Education.     New  York, 
1915,  p.  89. 

64  Cf.  Dexter,  op.  cit.,  pp.  67-71. 

86  Hinsdale,  B.  A.,  Education  in  the  United  States,  Monograph,  No.  8,  1800 
p.  5. 


28  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

schools,  but  free  schools  which  Governor  Berkeley  denounced. 
During  his  short  administration  he  was  more  than  once  a  gen- 
erous subscriber  to  funds  for  private  academies — a  policy  of 
conduct  entirely  consistent  with  his  own  and  the  South's  views 
concerning  this  means  of  education;  consistent,  too,  with  the 
practices  of  all  the  colonies,  or  parts  of  them  at  some  period, 
even  in  New  England."66 

In  the  middle  and  southern  colonies,  education  did  not  take 
on  a  strongly  institutional  form.  Academies  and  grammar 
schools  had  no  firm  organization,  and  common  schools  were  of 
a  voluntary  or  parochial  character.  The  geographic  conditions 
made  the  foundation  of  a  school  system  impossible. 

The  third  type  of  colonial  school  organization  was  that  of 
governmental  direction,  as  worked  out  in  the  schools  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  Connecticut.  The  colonial  assembly  of  Massachu- 
setts in  1047  enacted  a  law  requiring  each  town  of  fifty  families 
under  penalty  of  £5,  to  maintain  an  elementary  school,  and 
every  town  of  a  hundred  families  to  maintain  a  grammar 
(secondary)  school.  These  schools  were  to  be  supported  by 
tuition  fees  or  voluntary  taxation,  and  only  in  case  of  a  deficit 
should  the  town  be  taxed.  This  act  of  the  Massachusetts  Gen- 
eral Court  may  be  considered  the  germ  of  all  of  our  school 
legislation,  and  these  schools  the  beginning  of  the  present  school 
system.  According  to  Dr.  Martin,  the  fundamental  elements 
of  the  school  laws  of  Massachusetts  of  1642  and  1647  are  the 
essential  principles  of  our  present  State  system.67  Local  inter- 
est in  the  maintenance  of  the  schools  was  followed  by  a  period 
of  decline  for  a  century  and  a  half.  The  causes  of  the  deca- 
dence were  many.  Two  may  be  cited  which  have  been  noted  as 
insuperable  obstacles  to  an  organized  school  system  in  the 
middle  and  southern  colonies.  These  were:  (1)  The  influx  of 
various  denominations,  as  Episcopalians,  Quakers,  and  Bap- 
tists, which  weakened  the  alliance  of  the  State  with  an  intol- 
erant church;  (2)  the  dispersion  of  the  population  of  the  towns 
to  frontier  settlements.68  In  1789  the  policy  of  divided  schools, 


66  Iloone,  R.,  op.  cit.,  pp.  59,  60. 

67  Cf.  Martin,  G.  H.,  The  Evolution  of  the  Massachusetts  Public  School  System. 
New  York,  1894,  pp.  14,  15. 

68  Cf.  Graves,  History  of  Education.     New  York,  1915,  pp.  105,  106.     Par- 
ker, op.  cit.,  p.  25. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  29 

known  as  "district  schools/'  was  legalized ;  this  led  to  a  condi- 
tion in  1827  which  "marks  the  culmination  of  a  process  which 
had  been  going  on  steadily  for  more  than  a  century.  It  marks 
the  utmost  limit  to  the  subdivision  of  American  Sovereignty — 
the  high-water  mark  of  modern  democracy,  and  the  low-water 
mark  of  the  Massachusetts  school  system.69 

The  development  of  the  schools  of  Massachusetts  was  typical 
of  that  of  the  schools  of  all  New  England,  with  the  exception  of 
Rhode  Island.  In  1650  the  Hartford  Colony  passed  a  school 
law  similar  in  details  to  the  Massachusetts  law  of  1647.70  In 
1655  the  law  of  the  New  Haven  Colony  provided  that  parents 
and  masters  should  endeavor  to  teach  children  and  apprentices 
"to  be  able  duly  to  read  the  Scriptures  and  other  good  and 
profitable  printed  books  in  the  English  tongue,  .  .  .  and 
in  some  competent  measure  to  understand  the  main  grounds 
and  principles  of  the  Christian  religion  necessary  to  salva- 
tion."71 In  the  eighteenth  century  Connecticut  saw  the  same 
degeneracy  of  her  district  school  system  that  Massachusetts 
had  seen.72 

Rhode  Island  was  settled  for  the  specific  purpose  of  securiog 
the  enjoyment  of  freedom  of  thought.  School  legislation  would 
infringe  upon  this  liberty,  and,  therefore,  none  was  enacted  for 
nearly  two  centuries.  During  the  eighteenth  century  there 
were  voluntary  organizations  to  provide  for  ungraded  schools 
for  the  poor.  Samuel,  writing  in  1776,  says:  "As  respects 
schools  previous  to  1770,  they  were  but  little  thought  of;  there 
were  in  my  neighborhood  three  small  schools,  perhaps  about  a 
dozen  scholars  each.  Their  books  were  the  Bible,  spelling-book, 
and  primer."73  Unsuccessful  attempts  were  made  in  1798  and 
in  the  following  years  to  maintain  at  public  expense  one  or 
more  free  schools  in  each  town  of  the  State.  In  1828  a  basal 
state  law  for  common  schools  were  passed.74 

The  founders  of  the  schools  in  the  colonies  had  the  religious 


89  Martin,  op.  cit.,  p.  92. 

70  Cf.  Graves,  History  of  Education.     New  York,  1915,  p.  110. 

71  Quoted  by  Dexter,  op.  cit.,  p.  45. 

72  Cf.  Ibid.,  p.  84,  85.     Graves,  A  Student's  History  of  Education,  op.  cit., 
p.  269. 

73  Quoted  in  History  of  Education,  Dexter,  op.  cit.,  p.  52. 

74  Cf.  Ibid.,  p.  52.     Graves,  History  of  Education.     New  York,  1915,  p.  112. 


30  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

purpose  distinctly  in  view  from  the  beginning.  For  more  than 
a  century  and  a  half,  religious  instruction  continued  without 
interruption.  The  text-books  were  essentially  religious.  In 
New  England  and  in  New  York  until  1750  the  hornbook,  the 
New  England  Primer,  the  Psalter,  the  New  Testament,  and  the 
Bible  were  the  only  books  used.  The  contents  of  the  New 
England  Primer  show  its  religious  character  and  purpose.  Be- 
sides prayers  and  the  Commandments,  it  consisted  of  forty 
pages  of  catechism.  After  1750  the  primer  was  replaced  by  a 
speller,  not  so  religious  in  character,  which,  in  addition  to  short 
readings  and  lists  of  words,  contained  a  short  catechism,  the 
^necessary  observations  of  a  Christian."75 

In  addition  to  the  religious  influence  of  the  school  in  forming 
the  character  of  the  youth  in  colonial  days,  there  was  the  vital 
factor  of  home-training.  The  Southern  boy  was  made  to  feel 
that  one  day  he  would  have  charge  of  his  father's  plantations. 
Accordingly,  a  sense  of  responsibility  was  cultivated  in  him, 
and  experience  in  superintending  affairs  was  required  of  him. 
He  was  encouraged  to  know  the  principles  of  politics  and  to 
take  an  interest  in  currents  events,  for  he  would  one  day  take 
his  place  in  public  affairs.  Thus  conversant  with  the  principles 
and  details  of  public  service  and  accustomed  to  direct,  he  was 
fitted  for  leadership  when  the  Eevolution  came.78 

The  New  England  boy  was  reared  under  strict  discipline. 
Religion  was  a  dominating  force  in  his  daily  life;  there  was 
prayer  morning  and  evening  and  regular  attendance  at  church 
on  Sunday.  He  was  taught  a  profound  respect  for  his  parents 
and  teachers  and  a  prompt  obedience  to  their  slightest  direction. 
It  was  important  that  he  should  be  kept  busy  every  hour  of  the 
day.  At  school  he  should  be  diligent.  Morning  and  evening  he 
had  his  regular  duties.  Industry  and  honesty  were  preeminently 
cultivated.  The  youth  might  drive  a  sharp  bargain,  but  rather 
than  be  guilty  of  fraud  or  deception  he  should  suffer  poverty. 
His  environment,  like  that  of  the  Southern  boy,  was  favorable 
for  forming  the  habit  of  initiative  and  self-direction.  He  began 
early  to  see  his  relations  to  the  other  members  of  the  family. 


75  Cf.  Parker,  op.  cit.,  pp.  72-80.     Hall,  A.  J.,  op.  cit.,  pp.  26-30. 
"  Cf.  Wertenbaker,  T.  J.,  "Home  and  School  Training  in  the  South  in  th« 
Colonial  Period,"  National  Educational  Association  Proceedings,  1906,  p.  455. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  31 

He  identified  himself  with  the  large  interests  of  his  home  and 
his  father's  farm  and  all  its  fruits  with  the  pride  of 
a  possessor." 

At  the  time  of  the  Revolution  the  schools  became  less  religi 
ous.  Though  religious  instruction  was  not  directly  affected,  it 
fell  into  the  background.  The  text-books  were  made  less  religi- 
ous. The  New  England  Primer,  used  generally  from  the  founda- 
tion of  the  first  schools  in  the  colonies,  was  replaced  by  the 
spelling  book,  which  contained  less  religious  instruction.  The 
first  was  Dilworth's  A  New  Guide  to  the  English  Tongue,  pub- 
lished in  1740  and  widely  used  for  fifty  years.  After  the  Revo- 
lution Webster's  Blue  Backed  Speller,  published  in  1783,  be- 
came the  most  popular  text-book  for  primary  schools.  Instead 
of  prayers  and  the  religious  catechism  which  were  found  in  the 
primers,  its  contents  were  of  a  miscellaneous  character,  con- 
sisting of  unrelated  phrases,  sentences,  and  paragraphs;  illus- 
trated fables;  and  a  moral  catechism  which  discussed  the  vir- 
tues and  vices,  as  humility,  mercy,  revenge,  etc.78  Yet  the 
somewhat  religious  and  the  dominantly  moral  character  of  the 
text-books  in  post-Revolutionary  days  testify  to  the  religious 
temper  of  the  time.  Between  1800  and  1825  the  change  was 
taking  place.  The  ecclesiastical  element  was  gradually  elimi- 
nated from  the  text-books,  and  stories  and  anecdotes  tending 
to  point  moral  lessons  took  its  place.79  Murray's  English 
Reader,  one  of  the  most  widely  used  readers  in  the  early  part  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  contained  eighty-four  prose  selections 
in  the  first  part  of  the  book,  of  which  fifty-four  were  distinctly 
moral,  eighteen  others  religious,  and  the  remaining  had  a  moral 
or  religious  motive.  The  character  of  the  contents  points  to  the 
fact  that  moral  training  and  character-building  was  not  a 
theoretical  aim  of  the  schools,  but  that  it  was  in  the  very  center 
of  the  school  consciousness,  and,  therefore,  a  very  practical  aim 
in  education.80 

The  movement  toward   secularization  was  due  to   several 


77  Cf.  Brainerd,  T.,  American  Journal  of  Education,  Vol.  XVI.,  p.  335ff. 

78  Cf.  Parker,  op.  ciL,  pp.  80-83.     Hall,  op.  cit.,  pp.  30-36. 

79  Cf.  Mahoney,  J.  J.,  "Readers  in  the  Good  Old  Days,"  Educational  Review, 
Vol.  52,  p.  217. 

80  Cf.  Sisson,  E.  O.,  "An  Educational  Emergency,"  Atlantic  Monthly,  Vol. 
106,  p.  59. 


32  Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness 

causes.  The  intermingling  of  the  various  denominations,  giving 
the  school  a  heterogeneous  character,  made  the  teaching  of 
religion  by  the  state  school  difficult  of  adjustment.  Opposition 
was  raised  to  the  teaching  of  any  one  creed.  The  new  political 
conditions  flowing  from  the  independence  of  government  had  a 
tendency  to  bring  about  a  separation  of  Church  and  State.  The 
educational  provision  incorporated  in  the  Constitutions  of  five 
of  the  thirteen  original  States  at  the  time  of  their  formation 
marks  the  transition  and  foreshadows  the  policy  of  the  State 
to  take  exclusive  charge  of  the  public  school  and  to  make  it  a 
distinctly  civil  institution.81 

The  laicization  of  the  schools  was  the  inevitable  concomitant 
of  the  separation  of  Church  and  State.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  legislation  began  to  evolve  a  secular  aim 
for  the  schools.  "The  new  order  was  ushered  in  so  gradually 
and  easily  that  it  is  quite  impossible  to  assign  to  it  a  definite 
date.  The  catechism,  the  minister  as  an  authoritative  religious 
teacher,  and  the  New  England  Primer,  did  not  quit  the  schools 
at  any  specified  time ;  they  were  quitting  them  for  a  generation 
or  more.  The  most  significant  fact  in  the  long  process  is  the 
Act  of  1827,  which  declared  that  the  school  committees  should 
never  direct  to  be  used  or  purchased  in  any  of  the  town  schools 
any  school  books  which  were  calculated  to  favor  the  tenets  of 
any  particular  sect  of  Christians."82 

In  1837  began  the  movement  known  as  the  Public  School 
Revival,  led  by  Horace  Mann,  who  promoted  the  work  of  secu- 
larizing the  schools.  In  order  to  build  up  a  system  of  education, 
be  contended  for  the  principle  of  the  exclusion  of  religious 
instruction — a  principle  which  he  considered  essential  to  his 
aim.  The  sectarian  issue  became  fundamental  and  universal. 
Mr.  Mann  issued  twelve  annual  reports,  by  means  of  which  he 
built  up  public  opinion  and  influenced  legislatures  to  join  the 
movement  for  non-sectarian  public  schools.  In  his  second 
report,  in  1838,  he  adverts  to  the  alarming  deficiency  of  moral 
and  religious  instruction  then  found  to  exist  in  the  schools, 
and  adds  further:  "Deficiency  in  regard  to  religious  instruc- 
tion could  only  be  explained  by  supposing  that  school  coni- 


81  Cf.  Draper,  A.,  American  Education.     Boston,  1909,  pp.  4,  5. 

82  Hinsdale,  B.  A.,  Horace  Mann.     New  York,  1898,  pp.  211-12. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  33 

inittees,  whose  duty  it  is  to  prescribe  school  books,  had  not 
found  any  books  at  once  expository  of  the  doctrines  of  revealed 
religion  and  also  free  from  such  advocacy  of  the  'tenets'  of 
particular  sects  of  Christians  as  brought  them,  in  their  opinion, 
within  the  scope  of  the  legal  prohibition.  ...  Of  course, 
I  shall  not  be  here  understood  as  referring  to  the  Scriptures, 
as  it  is  well  known  that  they  are  used  in  almost  all  the  schools, 
either  as  a  devotional  or  as  a  reading  book."83  Mr.  Mann 
believed  thoroughly  in  the  moral  value  of  education.  He  held, 
in  fact,  that  education  was  the  only  force  that  could  elevate 
character.  He  believed  in  the  value  of  religion  as  a  basis  of 
morality,  but  to  secure  the  centralization  of  schools,  which 
would  promote  state  supervision,  and  the  uniformity  of  curric- 
ulum and  text-books,  the  two  conditions  which  he  thought 
were  demanded  by  considerations  of  efficiency,  he  urged  the 
secularization  of  the  American  schools.  In  his  tenth  report 
he  stated  three  propositions  which,  in  his  judgment,  described 
the  foundation  which  must  underlie  a  permanent  system  of 
common  schools.  The  second  proposition  reads  as  follows: 
"The  property  of  this  commonwealth  is  pledged  for  the  educa- 
tion of  all  its  youth  up  to  such  a  point  as  will  save  them  from 
poverty  and  vice  and  prepare  them  for  the  adequate  perform- 
ance of  their  social  and  civil  duties."84 

"The  full  tide  of  the  secularization  movement  is  seen  in  the 
legislation  enacted  from  about  1850  on."85  Before  this  time 
there  had  been  very  little  state  legislation  regarding  religious 
instruction.  About  six  states  favored  the  religious  element; 
the  same  number  were  opposed  to  it.  Most  of  the  civil  enact- 
ments in  regard  to  it  were  of  a  purely  local  nature.  After  1850 
the  state  legislatures  undertook  the  problem ;  their  legislation 
was  concerned  not  so  much  with  repealing  former  enactments 
as  in  correcting  current  practices.86  "The  aim  of  education  as 
set  forth  in  this  later  legislation  was  civic,  industrial,  profes- 
sional, not  religious  or  ecclesiastical.  Morality,  character, 
knowledge,  skill  were  emphasized,  but  to  prepare  leaders  for 


81  Report  of  Commission  of  Education,  1894,  p.  1635. 
84  Hinsdale,  B.  A.,  op.  cit.t  p.  177. 

88  Brown,  S.  W.,    The  Secularization  of  American  Education.     New  York, 
1912,  p.  56. 
M  Ibid.,  p.  57. 


34  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

the  church,  to  supply  a  ministry,  or  to  propagate  the  principles 
of  the  Christian  religion  no  longer  are  mentioned  as  aims. 
Law  schools,  medical  schools,  normal  schools,  agricultural 
schools,  and  mechanical  schools  are  rovided  for,  but  no  favor- 
able mention  is  made  of  schools  or  departments  of  theology."87 

To  summarize:  The  history  of  educational  effort  from  the 
first  colonial  settlements  to  the  secularization  of  the  schools, 
which  took  place  in  the  second  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, may  be  divided  into  two  periods:  (1)  The  colonial  period, 
ending  in  1776,  which  was  dominated  thoroughly  by  the  religi- 
ous aim  and  purpose  of  education.  Most  of  the  enactments 
making  provision  for  religious  instruction  were  prior  to  1776. 
(2)  The  period  of  transition  from  1776  to  1850,  which  was 
marked  by  a  lowering  of  religious  feeling,  a  growing  spirit  of 
religious  toleration,  and  a  development  of  material  interests. 
There  was  little  legislation  bearing  upon  the  subject  of  reli- 
gious instruction.  During  this  period  -the  middle  Western 
States,  rich  in  public  lands,  generously  responded  to  the  demand 
for  educational  funds.88 

We  have  indicated  the  gradual  development  of  the  school 
system  from  its  various  beginnings  by  the  colonists  to  fit  the 
youth  of  the  country  to  be  good  men,  and,  therefore,  good  citi- 
zens, to  the  time  when  the  State  took  charge  of  the  schools  and 
supported  them  by  general  taxation.  During  this  period  of  a 
century  and  more,  the  religious  and  moral  elements  of  the 
schools  were  the  supreme  interests.  With  the  elimination  of 
the  religious  influence,  it  is  clear,  and  will  be  increasingly 
clear,  that  some  other  force  should  be  introduced  in  order  to 
attain  the  educational  purposes  of  the  schools,  which  is  the 
training  of  the  youth  of  the  land  for  citizenship. 


v  Ibid.,  p.  57. 

88  Cf.  Brown,  S.  W.,  op.  cit.,  p.  56.     Graves,  op.  tit.,  A  Student's  History  of 
Education.     New  York,  1915,  p.  274. 


CHAPTER    III 

THE    SPECIFIC    MEANS    OF   TRAINING   FOR    CITIZENSHIP   IN    THE 
SECULARIZED   SCHOOLS  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES 

Confidence  in  the  moral  value  of  intellectual  education  was 
the  outcome  of  the  philosophy  of  Enlightenment  of  the  eight- 
eenth century.  One  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  Rational- 
istic philosophy  was  that  ignorance  is  the  source  of  crime 
and  that  mere  instruction  is  sufficient  for  moral  education. 
It  revived  the  Socratic  principle  that  knowledge  is  virtue. 
The  intellectual  culture  of  the  masses  became  the  aim  of 
the  educational  leaders,  who  thought  that  knowledge  would 
prevent  poverty,  social  evils,  and  all  other  vices.  It  was 
natural,  therefore,  that  they  should  urge  the  adoption  of  the 
secularized  school  to  replace  the  religious  school,  which,  on 
account  of  the  various  denominations  existing,  presented  diffi- 
culties of  administration.  It  was  thought  sufficient  that  relig- 
ious education  be  given  in  the  church  and  in  the  home.  Intel- 
lectual education  would  prepare  the  youth  for  citizenship. 

With  the  growth  of  the  state  school,  therefore,  education 
became  exclusively  intellectual.  Not  that  the  moral  aim  wa-s 
entirely  lost  sight  of,  but  the  great  factors  of  attaining  it,  the 
development  of  appropriate  feeling  and  the  discipline  of  the 
will,  were  neglected,  and  whatever  related  to  character  was 
made  informative  and  incidental.  Between  the  belief  of  the 
educational  leaders  who  still  held  the  moral  aim  supreme,  but 
who  believed  that  moral  betterment  was  bound  up  with  intel- 
lectual training,  and  that  view  in  which  the  moral  values  were 
obscured  by  the  great  emphasis  placed  upon  knowledge,  was 
not  a  fundamental  distinction,  and  a  great  many  of  the  teachers 
failed  to  make  it.  Promotion  was  made  entirely  on  intellectual 
lines.  The  incorrigible  youth  was  advanced  to  the  next  grade 
if  he  could  write  well,  regardless  of  his  lack  of  civic  virtue, 
while  the  dull,  faithful  boy  with  shining  civic  virtues  received 
only  discouragement  and  was  made  to  repeat  his  grade.  All 
the  discipline  which  should  have  been  the  means  of  lifting  the 
youth  into  noble  manhood  was  devised  and  applied  to  preserve 
order  in  the  school  room  that  the  intellect  might  be  cultivated. 

35 


36  Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness 

The  legislation  of  some  of  the  States  provided  for  moral 
training,  but  the  law  was  ignored.  The  Bible  was  read  in  some 
schools.  Reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  grammar,  and  geog- 
raphy were  the  staple  subjects.  Very  little  attention  was  given  to 
United  States  history,  and  there  were  very  few  text-books  on  the 
subject.  Goodrich's  Child's  First  Book  in  History,  published 
in  1834,  his  Comprehensive  Geography  and  History,  published 
in  1850,  and  Booth's  Pictorial  History  of  the  United  States 
with  questions  for  schools — published  in  1854 — none  of  them 
widely  used — and  Peter  Parley's  History  of  the  World  were  the 
only  school  texts  recorded  until  Anderson's  History  of  the 
United  States  was  published  in  1860.  The  importance  of  moral 
education  and  its  neglect  were  subjects  frequently  discussed  by 
the  boards  of  education,  but  that  moral  education  should  be 
given  was  unsuccessfully  urged.  There  is  no  record  of  any 
serious  attempt  or  systematic  plan  to  teach  morality,  though 
there  was  a  prevailing  dissatisfaction  with  the  lack  of  ethical 
training,  of  which  the  following  is  a  typical  instance :  "Since, 
contrary  to  law,  the  moral  education  of  the  young  in  our  schools 
has  been  neglected  so  as  to  produce  widespread  dissatisfaction 
and  complaint,  what  are  the  remedies  we  should  apply?  In 
lectures  delivered,  addresses  made,  resolutions  passed,  in  meet- 
ings on  education,  instead  of  intellectual  instruction  being 
exclusively  pressed  on  the  attention,  let  this  subject  be  dis- 
tinctly presented  and  receive  the  notice  that  its  paramount 
importance  demands.'-89  The  curriculum  was  organized  on  a 
purely  intellectual  basis  to  furnish  the  mind  with  facts  and  to 
train  it  to  logical  thinking.  The  emotional  life,  a  rich  posses- 
sion and  a  potent  means  of  reaching  the  will,  and  the  training 
of  the  will  itself,  was  almost  wholly  disregarded. 

Until  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  necessity  of 
education  as  a  preparation  for  citizenship  was  not  distinctly 
felt.90  The  population  was  largely  rural,  and  the  ordinary  man 
learned  the  machinery  of  government  as  far  as  he  needed  to  use 
it  by  active  participation  in  it.  The  "town  meeting"  was  the 
center  for  political  fellowship  essential  to  keeping  the  civic 
bond  among  the  citizens.  After  the  great  immigration  from 


89  First  Report  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Maine,  1847,  p.  84. 
*  Brown,  S.  W.,  op.  cit.,  p.  56. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  37 

Europe  which  began  with  the  European  revolutionary  move- 
ments in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  there  was  a  large 
population  that  knew  nothing  of  our  Government.  Such  a  situa- 
tion caused  thoughtful  men  to  cast  about  for  some  agency  in  the 
educational  system  to  teach  citizenship.  It  was  in  1859  that 
the  first  plea  for  instruction  in  civil  government  in  the  school 
was  made  before  the  National  Educational  Association.91  This 
first  note  for  specific  training  in  citizenship  was  sounded  by 
Daniel  Reed.  "At  the  national  convention  of  teachers  at  the 
Smithsonian  Institute,  Prof.  Daniel  Reed,  of  the  University  of 
Wisconsin,  delivered  a  well-timed  and  judicious  address,  whose 
object  was  to  inquire  into  the  competency  of  the  American 
people  to  govern  themselves,  and  in  its  course  ...  he 
alluded  to  the  growth  of  large  cities,  the  inroads  of  luxury,  and 
the  great  delusion  that  popular  government,  merely  in  and  of 
itself,  is  enough  to  save  our  nation  and  its  liberties.  In  this 
view  he  strongly  advocated  the  addition  of  constitutional 
studies  to  the  usual  school  studies."92  Other  petitions  for  civic 
instruction  were  made  about  this  time.  The  appeals  were  con- 
sidered favorably,  and  the  recognition  of  the  need  of  such  in- 
struction became  widespread.  The  movement  began  with  the 
study  of  the  text  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  A 
copy  of  this  document  was  appended  to  the  United  States  his- 
ories  which  had  been  introduced  into  the  schools,93  and  the 
pupils  were  required  to  memorize  it.  Somewhat  laterfi  separate 
small  texts  were  written,  and  these  took  the  Constitution,  clause 
by  clause,  with  brief  explanations.  No  consideration  was  given 
to  state  and  city  government.94  The  idea  continued  to  prevail 
among  educators  that  ethical  values  consisted  in  the  analysis 
of  social  relations,  affording  insight  into  the  structure  and 
working  of  society.  The  great  majority  of  teachers  were  entirely 
occupied  with  the  intellectual  aims  to  the  neglect  of  the  ethical 
training.  In  1870  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Education 
of  Rhode  Island  on  Moral  Training  states:  "The  most  im- 
portant part  of  all  education  is  too  often  neglected  amid  the 


91  Cf.  Sullivan,  James,  Report  of  Association  of  History  Teachers  of  MiddU 
States  and  Maryland,  1913,  p.  48. 

92  The  Washington  National  Intelligencer,  August  11,  1859. 

93  Cf .  Anderson's  History  of  the  United  States.     New  York,  1860. 

94  Cf.  Sullivan,  J.,  op.  tit.,  p.  30. 


38  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

daily  cares.  Too  much  reliance  is  placed  upon  instruction  else- 
where, forgetting  that  it  is  precept  upon  precept,  given  every- 
where and  rendered  in  every  condition  in  which  the  child  is 
placed  in  the  changing  circumstances  amidst  which  he  is 
thrown,  that  the  training  of  the  child  to  righteousness  and  holi- 
ness must  be  carried  forward.  The  committee  would  urge  upon 
the  teachers  a  more  earnest  attention  to  this  important  mat- 
ter."96 

In  1875,  at  the  National  Educational  Association,  severe 
criticism  was  made  upon  the  purely  intellectual  aims  that  had 
given  direction  to  the  educational  energies  of  the  schools. 
Granted  that  the  public  schools  were  to  train  for  citizenship 
and  that  good  citizenship  demanded  fullness  of  manhood,  how 
would  men  of  integrity  be  formed,  it  was  asked,  without  the 
cultivation  of  conscience?  The  most  stupendous  problem  to 
face  was  how  to  educate  the  youth  for  the  good  of  the  State 
while  the  State  was  careless  of  moral  instruction.96 

That  the  leading  educational  thinkers,  however,  placed  very 
little  emphasis  upon  the  moral  element  in  education  is  evi- 
denced by  the  almost  total  absence  of  that  subject  from  the 
reports  of  the  educational  discussions  of  those  years.  Two 
instances  will  illustrate  this  point.  The  Report  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Ten,  made  in  1893,  pursuant  to  the  direction  of  the 
National  Educational  Association,  is  recognized  universally  as 
the  most  important  educational  document  ever  issued  in  the 
United  States.97  Its  original  committee  included  among  its 
members,  Dr.  C.  W.  Eliot,  chairman ;  Dr.  W.  T.  Harris,  and  Dr. 
J.  B.  Angell.  This  committee  organized  conferences  on  the 
following  subjects :  Latin,  Greek ;  English ;  other  Modern  Lan- 
guages; Mathematics;  Physics;  Astronomy  and  Chemistry; 
Natural  History  (Biology,  including  Botany,  Zoology,  and 
Physiology) ;  History,  Civil  Government  and  Political  Economy ; 
Geography  (Physical  Geography,  Geology,  and  Meteorology). 
They  appointed  for  each  of  these  nine  subjects  a  subcommittee 


96  Twenty-fifth  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Rhode  Island, 
1870,  p.  36. 

96  Cf.  Magoun,  G.  F.,  "Relation  and  Duties  of  Education  to  Crime,"  Na- 
tional  Educational  Association  Proceedings,  1875,  p.  121. 

97  Cf.  Calkins,  N.  A.,  "Prefatory  Note,"  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Ten  on 
Secondary  Studies,  p.  111. 


Pedagogical  Value  of   Willingness  39 

of  ten  members  to  meet  in  conference  and  to  make  a  report  and 
specific  recommendations  concerning  the  selection  of  topics  in 
each  subject,  the  best  methods  of  instruction,  and  the  desirable 
appliances  or  apparatus,  and,  as  far  as  practicable,  the  allot- 
ment of  time  to  each  subject.  One  hundred  expert  educators 
addressed  themselves  to  the  task  of  issuing  a  report  dealing 
with  all  the  aspects  of  the  secondary  schools.98  In  this  report 
of  two  hundred  and  forty-nine  pages  there  is  a  very  meager 
reference  to  the  vital  subject  of  moral  training.  The  few  scat- 
tered sentences  bearing  upon  this  question,  both  directly  and 
indirectly,  would  not  occupy  more  than  three  or  four  pages. 
In  the  treatment  of  the  teaching  of  English  no  reference  was 
made  to  the  opportunity  offered  for  inspiring  with  high  ideals. 
The  report  of  thirty-eight  pages  on  history,  civil  government, 
and  political  economy  contained  slight  references  which  might 
be  grouped  on  a  page.  Perhaps  the  strongest  statement  made 
was :  ''Another  very  important  object  of  historical  teaching  is 
moral  training,"  which  received  no  amplification,  and  in  the 
summary  of  purposes  of  historical  study  was  entirely  for- 
gotten." With  the  exception  of  a  slight  reference  to  the  possi- 
bilities of  emotional  and  volitional  training  in  one  of  the  minor- 
ity reports,100  the  great  subject  of  character-formation  was  not 
so  much  as  spoken  of  in  the  report.  This  fact  is  all  the  more 
remarkable,  as  the  Committee  of  Ten  stated  expressly  that  the 
secondary  education  was  not  for  the  purpose  of  preparing  boys 
and  girls  for  colleges,  but  to  prepare  for  the  duties  of  life.101 
The  supreme  and  practically  the  only  aim  recognized  was  the 
training  of  the  powers  of  observation,  memory,  expression,  and 
reasoning.102 

The  report  of  the  Committee  of  Fifteen  dealing  with  the 
value  of  correlation  of  studies  in  the  elementary  curriculum, 
supplementing  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Ten,  was  issued 
in  1895.  It  was  the  work  of  five  educators  of  national  eminence, 
of  whom  Dr.  W.  T.  Harris,  the  chairman,  wrote  the  body  of  the 


98  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Ten  on  Secondary  School  Studies.     Chicago, 
1894,  pp.  4,  5,  13. 

99  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  170. 

100  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  57. 

101  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  51. 

102  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  52. 


40  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

report.  He  named  grammar,  literature,  arithmetic,  geography 
and  history  as  the  staple  subjects,103  and  mentioned  other 
branches,  as  vocal  music,  drawing,  manual  training  and  others 
which  could  lay  claim  to  a  place  on  the  program;  last  of  all, 
1  'instruction  in  morals  and  manners  which  ought  to  be  given 
in  a  brief  series  of  lessons  each  year  with  a  view  to  build  in  the 
mind  a  theory  of  the  conventionalities  of  polite  and  pure- 
minded  society."  Then  as  if  conscious  of  the  lack  of  provision 
for  moral  education  and  of  the  insistent  need  of  it,  the  writer 
added,  "the  higher  moral  qualities  of  truth-telling  and  sin- 
cerity are  taught  in  every  class  exercise  that  lays  stress  on 
accuracy  of  statement."104  The  recommendations  concerning 
the  teaching  of  each  subject  make  no  reference  to  moral  train- 
ing, nor  does  the  program  for  the  eight  years  of  the  course 
give  any  place  even  to  the  "brief  series  of  lessons"  to  teach  the 
conventionalities  of  society. 

Since  the  secularization  of  the  schools  had  taken  place, 
society  had  grown  in  complexity  of  structure  and  operation 
and  the  demands  upon  man's  moral  strength  were  becoming 
greater.  In  1888,  thinking  men  observed  that  the  spirit  of 
loyalty  and  devotion  which  had  been  fostered  by  the  Civil 
War  was  giving  place  to  political  corruption.  The  dishonest 
municipal  administration,  the  party  politics  in  the  hands  of 
spoilsmen,  the  monopolies  and  the  conflict  between  capital  and 
labor  were  becoming  a  menace  to  the  stability  of  the  country.105 

When  the  people  realized  that  the  vital  question  of  the 
country  was  how  to  check  the  grasping  private  interests  that 
were  flourishing  at  the  expense  of  the  common  good,  they 
looked  to  the  schools  as  the  effective  agency  to  arrest  the  evil, 
recommending  that  patriotism  be  taught.  The  more  the  atten- 
tion was  directed  to  the  training  in  citizenship  which  the 
schools  should  give,  the  more  apparent  was  the  prevailing 
neglect  of  this  aspect  of  education. 

103  Cf.  Report  on  Correlation  of  Studies  by  Committee  of  Fifteen.     Blooming- 
ton,  1895,  p.  37. 

104  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  43. 

105  Cf.  Baldwin,  J.,  "The  Culture  Most  Valuable  for  Educating  Law-abiding 
and  Law-respecting  Citizens,"  National  Educational  Association  Proceedingt, 
1888,  pp.  Ill,   112.     Cf.  Sheldon,  W.  E.,  ibid.,  "Discussion,"  p.  157.     Cf. 
Preston,  J.,    "Teaching  Patriotism,"   National  Educational  Association  Pro- 
ceedings, 1891,  pp.  102,  103,  109. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  41 

Signs  of  the  movement  of  conscious  and  purposeful  training 
in  citizenship,  not  always  fruitful  in  its  results,  came  to  notice 
about  the  year  1890.  Since  that  time  various  methods  have 
been  employed  which  may  be  classified  under  the  captions : 

I.  The  Teaching  of  Emotional  Patriotism. 
II.  School  Organizations,  especially  the  School  City  and 

School  Republic. 
III.  Civics  Courses. 
IV.  Community  Civics. 

/.  The  Teaching  of  Emotional  Patriotism 

The  teachers  were  urged  to  cultivate  patriotism,  and  to 
arouse  the  youth  of  the  school  to  an  appreciation  of  their 
national  heritage  of  a  free  government  and  their  correlative 
duty  of  loyalty.  By  inspection  of  the  schools  of  New  York 
City  in  1888,  it  was  discovered  that  there  was  an  almost  total 
lack  of  patriotic  sentiment  even  among  American  children.108 
To  overcome  this  general  indifference  it  was  decided  that  sys- 
tematic means  of  teaching  patriotism  should  be  devised.  The 
president  of  the  New  York  Board  of  Education  suggested  that 
national  flags  and  the  portraits  of  Washington  and  Lincoln  be 
presented  to  the  schools  and  that  instruction  in  patriotism  be 
made  an  integral  part  of  the  curriculum.  Accordingly,  morn- 
ing exercises  of  a  formal  patriotic  nature  were  introduced  and 
daily  observed,  during  which  the  American  flag  was  displayed 
in  front  of  the  assembled  school.107  The  ceremony  of  saluting 
the  flag  and  pronouncing  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  it  became 
popular  and  widespread.  The  commemoration  of  significant 
events  in  our  national  history,  as  Memorial  Day,  and  Patriots' 
Day,  and  of  the  birthdays  of  Washington  and  Lincoln ;  lessons 
in  history  and  biography;  the  singing  of  national  hymns;  the 
memorizing  and  rendering  of  patriotic  masterpieces  were  other 
features  of  this  system.  Colonel  Balch  of  New  York  City 
devised  an  elaborate  method  of  making  the  flag  the  reward  of 
good  conduct,  thereby  recognizing  the  essential  character  of 


108  Cf.  Baldwin,  J.,  op.  cit.,  National  Educational  Association  Proceedings, 
1888,  p.  111. 

107  Cf.  Balch,  G.  B.,  Methods  of  Teaching  Patriotism.  New  York,  1890,  pp 
12-60. 


42  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

citizenship.  According  to  his  plan,  the  flag  should  be  con- 
ferred, (1)  as  a  badge  upon  the  student  of  each  class  excelling 
the  rest  of  his  class  in  good  conduct,  to  be  worn  as  a  sign  of 
his  fitness  for  citizenship;  (2)  as  a  class  flag,  to  be  displayed 
in  the  room  of  the  class  which  had  excelled  during  the  pre 
ceding  week  in  punctuality  and  conduct.  The  class  flag,  borne 
by  the  standard-bearer,  should  be  presented  to  the  assembled 
school  and  the  pupils  should  salute  it  with  ceremony.  His 
plan  included  a  number  of  ingenious  devices  adding  solemnity 
to  the  exercise  in  order  to  move  the  children  to  reverence  the 
flag. 

A  feature  of  this  effort  to  revive  patriotism  was  the  general 
interest  manifested  by  the  legislators  in  the  display  of  the  flag 
from  school  buildings.  In  1889  the  legislatures  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Wisconsin  authorized  the  school  boards  of  those  States  to 
purchase  national  flags ;  the  legislature  of  New  York  took  similar 
action  in  1890  ;108  flag-law  became  operative  in  Illinois  in  1895, 
requiring,  under  penalty,  that  the  flag  should  float  from  every 
school-house  from  9  a.  m.  to  4  p.  m.,  when  school  was  in  ses- 
sion. The  Massachusetts  flag-law  was  passed  in  the  same 
year;109  that  of  Ohio,  in  1896  ;110  the  other  States  adopted  similar 
flag  measures  during  this  time. 

The  observance  of  Flag  Day,  June  14,  was  inaugurated  in 
1890  by  the  Connecticut  Society  of  the  Sons  of  the  American 
Kevolution.111  The  first  recognition  of  the  day  by  the  New 
York  schools  was  on  June  14,  1889,  when  Prof.  G.  B.  Balcb, 
head  of  a  free  kindergarten  for  the  poor,  established  the  custom, 
after  which  it  was  adopted  by  the  board  of  education.112  The 
clay  was  first  recognized  by  the  State  when,  at  the  request  of  the 
Sons  of  the  Kevolution,  the  governor  of  New  York  ordered  the 
flag  raised  on  all  public  buildings  in  the  State,  June  14,  1894.113 

A  new  impetus  to  the  teaching  of  patriotism  was  given  when 
the  movement  was  begun  to  observe  Peace  Day  on  May  18,  in 


108  Cf.  Balch,  G.  B.,  op.  cit.,  pp.  65,  66,  68. 

109  Cf.  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  1895,  Vol.  II,  p.  1652. 

110  Cf.  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  1901,  Vol.  I,  p.  157. 

111  Cf.  Sons  of  American  Revolution  Historical  Papers,  No.  5,  1902,  p.  6. 

112  Cf.  Walsh,  W.  S.,  Curiosities  of  Popular  Custom.     Philadelphia,  1898, 
p.  433. 

113  Cf.  Schauffler,  R.  H.,  Flag  Day.     New  York,  1912,  p.  7. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  43 

commemoration  of  the  opening  of  the  First  World  Congress 
in  1899  in  the  interests  of  international  peace.  It  aimed  to 
stimulate  the  cultivation  of  the  sentiments  of  justice  and 
peace.  The  schools  in  twelve  States  had  made  it  a  patriotic 
function  when,  in  1907,  the  state  superintendents  at  their 
annual  convention  recommended  to  all  schools  the  observance 
of  the  anniversary  of  the  First  Hague  Congress.114 

The  efforts  to  teach  patriotism  did  not  attain  the  desired 
results.  In  a  great  many  schools  the  majority  of  the  pupils  are 
of  foreign  birth  or  parentage.  In  the  city  of  Chicago  more 
than  two-thirds  of  the  pupils  are  of  that  class;  twenty-six 
nationalities  make  up  its  complex  school  population.115  The 
population  of  many  other  cities  is  not  less  complex.  The 
supreme  aim  seems  to  have  been  to  Americanize  or  to  dena- 
tionalize these  pupils  as  quickly  as  possible  and,  in  the  process, 
fundamentals  have  been  overlooked.  In  the  zeal  to  teach  the 
child  patriotism  and  to  inoculate  him  with  American  ideals, 
the  school  has  given  him  the  wrong  attitude  toward  his  national 
traditions  and  often  toward  his  parents,  so  that  he  may  have 
even  contempt  for  their  dress,  habits,  language,  and  belief.110 
Once  the  child  loses  respect  for  his  parent,  the  ground  for 
character-building  is  cut  from  under  his  feet,  and  lessons  in 
patriotism  are  useless.  The  children  of  immigrants  often 
become  interpreters  of  American  ways  to  their  parents  and 
grow  up  without  training  because  the  family  relationships 
have  been  reversed.117  A  primary  essential  in  the  training  of 
children  of  both  immigrant  and  native  parents  is  a  deep  respect 
and  affection  for  their  parents.  The  process  of  reducing  at 
once  the  children  of  foreign  extraction  to  one  amalgam  in 
the  smelting  pot  of  races  makes  too  abrupt  the  breaking  of 
family  traditions.  The  consciousness  that  a  child  has  a 
family  history  worth  preserving  is  a  potent  influence  inspiring 
him  to  bear  himself  worthily.118 

114  Cf.  Mead,  L.  A.,  Patriotism  and  Peace.     Boston,  1910,  p.  21. 

115  Cf.  Abbott,  G.,  "The  Education  of  Foreigners  in  American  Citizenship," 
National  Municipal  League,  Buffalo  Conference,  1910,  p.  374. 

116  Cf.  Dewey,  J.,  "The  School  as  a  Center  of  Social  Life,"  National  Educa- 
tional Association  Proceedings,  1902,  p.  377. 

117  Cf.  Abbott,  G.,  op.  cit.,  p.  375. 

118  Cf.  Hall,  G.  S.,  Educational  Problems,  Vol.  I.,  p.  338.     Dewey,  J.,  op.  cit., 
p.  375. 


44  Pedagogical  -Value  of   Willingness 

The  civic  pageant  is  a  positive  illustration  and  an  effective 
means  of  preserving  the  ancestral  traditions  of  each  nationality 
and  at  the  same  time  of  fusing  all  races  into  one  whole,  thus 
cultivating  true  civic  consciousness.  A  great  many  of  our 
cities  have  presented  such  pageants.  The  school  children  have 
participated,  impersonating  the  human  history  of  the  neigh- 
borhood, beginning  with  the  Indians  and  ending  with  the  rise 
of  the  school-house;  then  the  nationalities,  varying  in  number 
with  the  complexity  of  the  population,  each  contributing  a 
spectacle  of  something  worthy  in  its  national  life.119  The  civic 
pageant  is  a  distinct  contribution  to  the  forming  of  civic  con- 
sciousness by  removing  race  prejudice  and  invoking  the  interest 
of  the  entire  community,  including  every  nationality  and  color. 

At  the  convention  of  the  National  Educational  Association 
in  1905  it  was  stated  that  the  attempts  at  teaching  patriotism 
were  ineffective  and  that  more  vital  training  was  needed :  "Our 
instruction  in  civics  is  largely  a  sham.  It  is  so  much  easier 
to  teach  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  flag  than  to  teach  a 
community  to  keep  the  fire  escapes  free  from  encumbrances. 
It  is  more  interesting  to  prepare  a  program  for  patriotic  cele- 
bration than  to  secure  from  a  tenement-house  population  a 
respect  for  house  laws.  It  is  so  much  easier  to  teach  children 
to  wave  small  flags  while  singing  "The  Star-Spangled  Banner" 
than  to  teach  them  to  separate  the  ashes  from  the  garbage,  as 
is  required  in  large  cities.  It  is  because  we  do  not  teach  the 
important  city  ordinances  and  the  reasons  underlying  them 
that  the  violation  of  laws  is  so  common."120  At  the  same  con- 
vention the  following  significant  resolution  was  adopted :  "The 
association  regrets  the  revival  in  some  quarters  of  the  idea 
that  the  common  school  is  to  teach  nothing  but  the  three  R's 
and  spelling,  and  takes  this  occasion  to  declare  that  the  ulti 
mate  object  of  popular  education  is  to  teach  children  to  live 
righteously,  healthily,  and  happily,  and  to  accomplish  this 
object  it  is  essential  that  every  school  inculcate  love  of  truth, 
justice,  purity,  and  beauty  through  study  of  biography,  history, 
ethics,  natural  history,  music,  drawing,  and  manual  arts."121 


Cf.  "Pageant  of  the  Nations,"  Survey,  1914,  Vol.  32,  pp.  209-10. 
Richman,  J.,  "The  Immigrant  Child,"  National  Educational  Association 


Proceedings,  1905,  p.  117. 
i"  Ibid.,  p.  43. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  45 

//.  School  Organizations 

Student  organizations  have  been  regarded  a  valuable  means 
of  developing  social  relationships  and,  therefore,  of  preparing 
for  citizenship.  These  clubs  exist  in  some  form  of  student 
activities  in  every  school  and  they  have  been  utilized  to  a 
greater  or  less  degree  by  teachers  as  self-directed  groups  to 
develop  initiative  and  responsibility  in  the  members  for  the 
welfare  of  the  group.  "The  school  and  college  fraternities  and 
teams  should  be  fore-schools  of  citizenship,  cultivating  its  basal 
virtues."122 

Student  government  has  been  adopted  in  a  number  of  schools 
to  cultivate  self-control,  personal  responsibility,  and  social 
conscience.  The  scheme  as  it  has  been  worked  out  varies  widely 
in  elaborateness  and  in  the  points  which  fall  within  the  range 
of  pupil  government.  In  the  college,  cheating  in  examination 
is  often  the  only  matter  dealt  with.  In  the  high  school,  other 
questions  of  school  discipline  are  considered.  In  the  grades, 
every  civic  duty  and  even  matters  of  personal  morality  are 
included.  It  is  conceded  by  some  that  pupil  government  can 
be  successfully  carried  out  in  the  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth 
grades.  Pupil  organization  to  cultivate  community  spirit  and 
to  give  an  insight  into  civic  life  has  been  tried  in  many  schools. 
A  typical  instance  obtains  in  the  Horace  Mann  School,  in  New 
York  City,  introduced  eight  or  nine  years  ago.  Each  grade 
above  the  third  elects  a  delegate  to  the  Horace  Mann  Asso- 
ciation, a  kind  of  school  parliament  elected  to  deal  with  affairs 
concerning  all  the  student  activities.  The  supervision  of  the 
recess  periods  in  the  elementary  school  is  also  a  function  of 
student  government  in  this  school.  The  teachers  recommend 
it  because  it  secures  the  cooperation  of  the  students.123 

The  children  in  the  lower  grades  in  the  schools  of  Boston, 
under  the  direction  of  Dr.  Colin  Scott,  form  themselves  into 
spontaneous  groups  on  the  basis  of  mutual  attraction  to  cook, 
sew,  model  in  clay,  dramatize  plays,  etc.,  one  class  forming  as 
many  as  fourteen  groups,  which  he  seeks  to  utilize  in  culti- 
vating the  spirit  of  cooperation.  He  allows  three-quarters  of 


1M  Hall,  G.  S.,  Educational  Problems,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  II,  p.  674. 
141  Reply  of  the  principal  to  questionnaire. 


46  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

an  hour  a  day  for  group  work  and  looks  rather  to  the  social 
and  moral  effect  of  the  organization  than  to  the  artistic  per- 
fection of  the  work.  The  chief  aim  is  to  develop  the  group 
bond  upon  that  as  a  basis,  to  cultivate  loyalty  to  one  another, 
and  to  promote  the  sense  of  honor  and  of  responsibility.124 

The  Good  Citizens'  Clubs  have  been  organized  in  the  schools 
of  New  York  City,  Philadelphia,  Chicago,  and  many  other  cities 
to  arouse  the  pupils  to  the  ideal  of  service  which  they  should 
render  in  some  measure  in  return  for  what  the  community 
does  for  them.  The  Good  Citizen  Club  of  the  Pierce  School, 
Brookline,  Mass.,  founded  in  1906,  is  typical  of  these  organiza- 
tions. It  consists  of  fifty-two  members;  two  boys  and  two 
girls  of  each  of  the  thirteen  grammar  schools  of  the  city  are 
chosen,  each  set  by  the  members  of  their  own  school.  Only 
pupils  with  a  clear  record  can  be  candidates.  The  boys  keep 
the  streets  free  from  littered  paper  and  rubbish;  they  make 
school  gardens;  the  members  of  the  manual  training  class 
contribute  the  products  of  their  skill  to  the  school.  The  girls 
are  helpful  to  the  teachers  in  preparing  illustrative  material 
for  class,  etc.  To  maintain  interest,  meetings  of  the  Good 
Citizen  Club  are  held  weekly,  at  which  reports  of  the  preceding 
week  are  given.125  This  organization  has  been  in  existence  for 
more  than  ten  years  and  is  at  present  doing  systematic  work.120 

An  elaborate  form  of  self-government  in  the  grades  was 
conceived  and  developed  by  Bernard  Cronson  in  Manhattan 
School,  No.  135,  New  York  City.  In  1902  he  organized  the 
four  upper  grades  of  400  Italian  children  into  a  city,  of  which 
each  class  was  a  borough.  A  constitution  and  by-laws  were 
adopted  and  governmental  functions  were  borrowed  from  city 
administration.  The  boys  made  out  and  audited  financial 
reports,  mapped  out  imaginary  cities  with  parks  and  with 
fire,  health  and  police  departments.  His  plan  was  especially 
successful  in  overcoming  the  habit  of  truancy,  and  in  creating 
an  interest  in  the  study  of  history  and  of  social  and  civil  insti- 


184  Cf.  Scott,  Colin,  Social  Education.     Boston,  1908,  pp.  114-170. 
127  Cf.  McSkimmon,  M.,  American  Institute  of  Instructors  Proceedings,  1908, 
p.  264  ff. 

129  McSkimmon,  M.,  Reply  to  questionnaire. 


Pedagogical  Value  of   Willingness  47 

tutions.127  At  Mr.  Cronson's  death,  his  plan  of  self-government 
in  the  Manhattan  School,  No.  135,  was  abandoned.128 

The  most  widely  known  experiment  in  student-government 
is  the  school  city  or  school  republic,  founded  in  1897  by  Mr. 
Wilson  Gill,  of  Philadelphia.  The  distinct  purpose  of  the 
school  city  is  to  train  in  citizenship.129  The  method  combines 
the  objective  method  of  teaching  civics  with  student-govern- 
ment, both  in  principle  and  in  details.  Because  the  school  city 
places  the  discipline  of  the  school  in  the  hands  of  the  pupils 
supervised  by  the  principal,  'and  because  the  author  aims  to 
develop  his  purpose  through  self-government,  it  is  properly 
classified  under  student  organizations.  Mr.  Gill  saw  the  cor- 
ruption among  men  interested  in  local  government  and  the 
lack  of  interest  in  another  large  class  of  otherwise  good  men. 
To  overcome  the  active  selfishness  of  the  first  class  and  the 
apathy  of  the  second,  he  formulated  the  plan  of  the  school 
city.  It  consists  in  organizing  each  school  as  a  self-governing 
community,  all  the  members  of  which  are  citizens,  and  consti- 
tute a  miniature  city;  this  city  is  governed  by  officials  elected 
by  the  citizens  from  among  themselves.  The  principal  grants 
a  charter,  incorporating  the  school  into  a  municipality.  Each 
room  is  organized  into  a  city  ward.  The  citizens  elect  a  mayor ; 
a  city  council  consisting  of  boys  and  girls,  one  from  each 
room;  three  judges;  a  sheriff  and  other  officials.  The  mayor 
appoints,  and  the  council  confirms  the  appointments  of  com- 
missioners of  health,  public  works,  police,  and  other  depart- 
ments. When  the  unit  of  organization  is  the  State  and  each 
room  constitutes  a  city,  the  system  is  known  as  the  school 
republic.130 

The  plan  of  the  school  city  is  based  upon  three  principles: 
First,  that  the  individual's  success  in  life  depends  upon  his 
willingness  to  cooperate  with  others;  second,  that  with  the 
opportunity,  the  individual  rises  to  responsibility;  third,  that 
citizenship  is  an  art,  which  to  be  learned  must  be  practiced. 
The  advocates  of  the  system  emphasize  its  possibilities  to 


127  Cf.  Cronson,  B.,  Student  Government.     New  York,  1907,  p.  107  ff. 
IM  Letter  of  the  present  principal  to  the  writer. 

129  Cf.  Gill,  Wilson,  The  New  Citizenship.     Philadelphia,  1913,  p.  670. 
«»  Cf.  Gill,  Wilson,  op.  cit.,  p.  53  ff. 


48  Pedagogical   Value  of  Willingness 

develop  in  the  school  the  spirit  of  democracy  in  contrast  to 
the  spirit  of  monarchy  suggested  by  the  government  of  the 
teacher;  to  cultivate  in  the  pupils  the  sense  of  responsibility 
in  civic  affairs  by  their  performance  of  the  important  local 
civic  duties;  and  to  give  them  an  appreciation  of  the  sanctity 
of  the  law,  the  majesty  of  which  they  are  charged  with  main 
taining.131 

The  school  city  was  first  given  a  trial  in  a  disorderly  vaca- 
tion school  of  1,100  children  between  5  and  15  years  of  age  in 
New  York  City.  Within  a  week  after  the  pupils  were  organized 
as  a  city,  the  school  became  orderly  and  law-abiding.132  The 
plan  has  been  introduced  into  several  schools  with  varying 
results.  In  the  Normal  school,  New  Paltz,  New  York ;  the  Hyde 
Park  High  School,  Chicago ;  in  some  of  the  grade  schools  in  New 
York  City,  and  in  Syracuse,  New  York;  and  in  approximately 
thirty  grade  schools  in  Philadelphia  it  was  tried.133  In  most 
of  these  schools  it  has  been  discontinued.134  At  present,  it 
obtains  in  its  pure  form  in  a  very  few  schools  in  New  York 
City;  in  a  modified  form,  containing  some  of  the  essentials  of 
pupil  government,  it  finds  place  in  about  fifty  schools  of  New 
York  City  and  immediately  contiguous  New  Jersey  towns.135 
It  was  introduced  in  April,  1916,  into  the  Wendell  Phillips 
School,  Boston.  Dr.  Snedden,  when  commissioner  of  educa 
tion  in  Massachusetts,  spoke  in  favor  of  the  school  city  and  its 
underlying  principles,  although  he  did  not  advocate  the  par- 
ticular method  of  working  them  out.136 

The  great  majority  of  educators  regard  the  paternal  form 
of  government  that  obtains  in  the  schools  generally  as  the  best 
to  attain  the  school  aims.  While  the  training  of  pupils  in  self 
government  is  one  of  the  purposes  of  the  school,  it  can  scarcely 
be  accomplished  in  such  a  thoroughgoing  system  as  that  of 
the  school  city,  which  for  its  own  successful  working  needs  a 
surveillance  by  the  school  authorities  sufficient  to  annul  its 
self-government  elements.  "The  term  'self-government'  has 

131  Cf.  ibid.,  pp.  178-191. 

1M  Cf.  Outlook,  Vol.  80.  p.  947. 

"•  Cf.  Gill,  Wilson,  op.  cit.,  pp.  205,  216. 

114  Replies  to  writer's  questionnaire. 

is*  Celling,  R.,  Reply  to  questionnaire. 

138  Personal  letter  to  the  writer. 


Pedagogical   Value  of  Willingness  49 

often  been  a  misleading  one  in  educational  discussions.  It  has 
frequently  been  used  to  signify  self-control,  either  in  the  indi- 
vidualistic sense,  or  as  the  self-direction  of  groups  without 
outside  compulsion.  In  either  of  these  interpretations,  self- 
control,  which  is  essential  to  all  high  social  development,  goes 
far  beyond  the  requirements  of  government.  What  is  really 
needed  in  our  schools  as  a  preparation  for  democracy  and  on 
highly  differentiated  society  is  not  self-government,  but  self- 
control  and  the  self-direction  of  groups."137 

The  sharpest  criticism  made  upon  the  school  city  is  its 
unnaturalness.  In  treating  the  child  as  a  replica  of  the  adulf, 
the  principles  of  genetic  psychology  have  been  overlooked. 
The  child  is  as  immature  psychologically  as  he  is  physio- 
logically. The  school  city  appeals  to  emotions  and  to  a  degree 
of  intelligence  in  him  which  do  not  exist.  The  school  should 
furnish  an  environment  suitable  to  his  present  growing  condi- 
tions. "Partly  embryonic  from  a  physiological  standpoint, 
they  [children]  are  still  more  so  from  a  social  one.  Schools 
are  social  embryos.  They  cannot  be  little  states  modeled  after 
that  of  adults."138  The  child  is  living  as  actually  during  the 
school  years  as  he  will  live  in  adult  life.  The  principle  of 
adaptation  should  be  one  of  the  teacher's  great  working  prin- 
ciples, according  to  which  she  shapes  the  school  activities  to 
the  present  stage  of  the  child's  physical,  mental,  moral,  and 
spiritual  life. 

Moreover,  a  highly  organized  self-government  tends  to  over- 
socialize  children  in  two  respects.  It  effaces  individuality 
inasmuch  as  it  tends  to  make  them  think  in  groups,  and  it 
deprives  them  of  that  training  in  submission  to  authority 
which  is  the  basis  of  trust  and  loyalty.  Children  are  hero- 
worshippers,  and  it  is  natural  for  them  to  obey  commands 
and  to  follow  leaders,  rather  than  to  bear  the  responsibility 
of  governing  a  group.139  Playground  activities  may  be  profit- 
ably turned  to  develop  helpful  cooperation  among  pupils, 
which  is  an  essential  element  of  citizenship.  The  literary, 
debating,  musical,  and  art  clubs,  which  are  features  of  school 
life,  are  also  means  of  securing  this  important  educational  end. 


137  Scott,  Colin,  op.  cit.,  p.  75. 

138  Scott,  Colin,  op.  cit.,  p.  71. 

139  Cf.  Hall,  G.  S.,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  I.,  p.  306-309. 


50  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

III.  The  Study  of  Civics  as  a  Preparation  for  Citizenship 

The  need  of  studying  civics  as  a  preparation  for  citizenship 
was  recognized  more  than  fifty  years  ago,140  but  was  not 
emphasized.  At  the  convention  of  the  National  Educational 
Association  in  1889  there  was  given  a  report  of  a  questionnaire 
that  had  been  circulated  among  the  state  superintendents, 
asking  their  opinion  of  the  advisability  of  making  civil  govern- 
ment a  required  subject  of  the  curriculum.  The  report  stated 
that  of  the  total  number  of  thirty-eight  superintendents,  thirty- 
five  had  answered ;  of  these,  twenty  favored  the  study,  fourteen 
were  noncommittal  and  one  preferred  music  and  drawing.141 
The  legislatures  of  ten  states  required  the  subject  taught.  In 
order  to  see  what  this  subject  has  contributed  to  the  work  of 
training  for  citizenship  it  will  be  necessary  to  trace  its  growth 
in  the  schools. 

Educational  practice  rarely  exceeds  the  guidance  of  scientific 
theory.  From  the  recommendations  of  the  National  Educa- 
tjpnal  committees  for  the  teaching  of  civil  government  may 
be  learned  the  aim  and  maximum  scope  of  the  subject  at  that 
time.  The  first  stimulus  given  the  study  was  the  Keport  of  the 
Committee  of  Ten  in  1893.  The  Conference  on  History,  Civil 
Government,  and  Political  Economy  passed  the  resolutions: 
"That  civil  government  in  the  grammar  schools  should  be 
taught  by  oral  lessons,  with  the  use  of  collateral  text-books, 
and  in  connection  with  United  States  History  and  local 
geography. 

"That  civil  government  in  the  high  schools  should  be  taught 
by  using  a  text-book  as  a  basis,  with  collateral  reading  and 
topical  work,  and  observation  and  instruction  ID  the  govern- 
ment of  the  city  or  town  and  State  in  which  the  pupils  live, 
and  with  comparisons  between  American  and  foreign  systems 
of  government."142 

The  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Fifteen  submitted  in  1895 
stressed  the  subject  of  history  as  the  special  branch  fitted  to 
furnish  preparation  for  the  duties  of  citizenship,  inasmuch  as 

140  Cf.  p.  37,  supra. 

141  Cf .  Donnan,  L.,  '  'The  High  School  and  the  Citizens,"  National  Educa- 
tional Association  Proceedings,  1889,  pp.  513-14. 

142  Report  of  Committee  of  Ten,  op.  cit.,  p.  165.     Cf.  ibid.,  pp.  180,  181. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  51 

it  gives  as  a  basis  the  sense  of  belonging  to  the  corporate  civil 
body,  which  possesses  the  right  of  control  over  person  and 
property  in  the  interests  of  the  whole.  This  sense  of  the 
solidarity  of  the  State,  it  maintained,  is  the  basis  of  citizen- 
ship.143 The  Committee  recommended  the  study  of  the  Outlines 
of  the  Constitutions  for  ten  or  fifteen  weeks  in  the  eighth  grade 
to  fix  the  ideas  of  the  threefoldness  of  the  Constitution,  to  give 
an  idea  of  the  mode  of  filling  the  offices  of  the  three  depart- 
ments and  the  character  of  the  duties  with  which  each  depart- 
ment is  charged.  To  do  this  was  to  lay  the  foundation  for  an 
intelligent  citizenship.1*4 

The  Committee  of  Seven  of  the  American  History  Associa- 
tion in  1899  recommended  that  history  and  civil  government 
be  studied  together  as  one  subject  with  the  hope  of  attaining 
better  results  than  by  studying  each  separately.145  In  1908, 
nine  years  afterwards,  the  Committee  on  the  instruction  of 
government,  appointed  by  the  American  Political  Science  Asso- 
ciation, rendered  a  report  heralding  a  new  note  which  marked 
the  beginning  of  a  new  epoch  in  the  teaching  of  civics.  It 
recommended  that  the  study  of  simple  organs  and  func 
tions  of  local  government  be  introduced  into  the  grades,  be- 
ginning not  later  than  the  fifth  year.  In  the  eighth  grade, 
formal  instruction  in  local,  state,  and  national  government 
should  be  given  during  one-half  year,  using  an  elementary 
text.  A  course  in  government  should  be  given  also  in  the  high 
school.146  Prior  to  this  date  civics  had  not  been  taught  in  the 
intermediate  grades  except  in  an  occasional  grade  school,  as 
in  some  of  the  Chicago  schools,  where  the  syllabus  of  Mr.  H. 
W.  Thurston,  then  of  the  Chicago  Normal  College,  had  been 
introduced.147  This  report,  therefore,  was  the  first  official 
recommendation  of  a  course  in  concrete  civics  in  the  inter- 
mediate grades  of  the  elementary  schools. 

These  facts  regarding  the  teaching  of  civics  from  1892  to 


143  Cf .  Report  on  the  Correlation  of  Studies  by  the  Committee  of  Fifteen,  op. 
cit.,  p.  33. 

144  Cf.  ibid.,  pp.  36,  37. 

145  Cf.  Report  of  American  Historical  Association,  1899,  p.  81. 

146  Cf.  American  Political  Science  Association  Proceedings,  1908,  pp.  250,  251. 

147  Cf.  Fairlee,  J.  A.,  "Instruction  in  Municipal  Government,"  National 
Municipal  League,  Detroit  Conference,  1903,  p.  224. 


52  Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness 

1908  show  that  while  the  machinery  of  government  had  been 
widely  taught,  it  had  not  become  a  live  subject.  The  Committee 
of  Ten  in  1893  reported  that  civil  government  was  pursued  in 
not  more  than  one-sixth  of  the  grammar  schools  which  had 
come  under  its  observation ;  about  one-third  of  the  high  schools 
offered  some  instruction  in  that  subject.148  At  the  annual  con- 
vention of  the  National  Municipal  League,  1903,  the  following 
report  of  an  investigation  into  how  far  the  instruction  for 
citizenship  prevailed  in  the  public  school  was  submitted.  "In 
the  Middle  West  one-sixth  of  the  public  schools  give  no  work 
in  civil  government;  one-fourth  of  the  North  Atlantic  and 
far  Western  States  neglect  it.  At  least  one  city  of  100,000 
population  gives  no  work  in  civil  government  in  any  school."149 
No  adequate  instruction  in  municipal  government  had  been 
given.  An  investigation  of  fifty  of  the  most  important  cities 
had  been  made,  and  answers  had  been  received  from  thirty- 
three;  ten  had  reported  nothing  doing;  ten,  something  done; 
thirteen,  reasonably  good  work.  Some  large  cities  were  using 
text-books  with  nothing  more  than  an  analysis  of  the  Federal 
Constitution.  The  best  work  had  been  done  by  Boston,  Cleve- 
land and  Detroit.150 

The  subject  of  civics  during  the  first  years  of  the  present 
century  was  by  no  means  widely  studied  in  the  high  schools. 
The  following  figures  show  what  per  cent  of  the  entire  enroll- 
ment of  students  of  the  high  schools  took  the  course  in  civics 
between  the  years  1897-8  and  1905-6,  inclusive. 

Course  in  Civics  in  Secondary  Schools 

Year '97-8    '98-9 '99-00 '00-01    '01-02    '02-03    '03-04 '04-05 '05-06 

Per  cent  of 

students    22.7421.9721.6620.97     20.15     19.85     18. 76  17. 97  17. 48U1 

During  the  nine  years  of  which  data  were  furnished,  an 
average  of  not  more  than  20  per  cent  of  the  entire  student  body 
studied  civics.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  the  per  cent  de- 
creased each  year.  Some  explanation  of  the  backward  state  of 
instruction  in  civil  government  may  be  found  in  the  slight 
attention  given  to  the  subject  by  educational  associations.  For 


148  Cf.  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Ten,  op.  cit.,  p.  179. 

14»  Fairlee,  J.  A.,  ibid.,  p.  224. 

»»  Cf.  Fairlee,  J.  A.,  ibid.,  pp.  224-25. 

111  Cf.  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1907,  Vol.  II,  p.  1057. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  53 

ten  years,  from  1892  to  1902,  it  had  received  no  consideration 
at  the  conventions  of  the  National  Educational  Associations. 
During  that  time  the  teaching  of  civil  government  was  sub- 
ordinated to  that  of  history.  In  1908  there  were  large  cities 
where  American  government  was  not  taught  in  the  high 
school.1" 

At  the  annual  convention  of  the  National  Educational  Asso- 
ciation in  1907  it  was  resolved  that  "It  is  the  duty  of  teachers 
to  enter  at  once  upon  a  systematic  course  of  instruction,  which 
shall  embrace  not  only  a  broader  patriotism,  but  a  more  ex- 
tended course  of  moral  instruction,  especially  in  regard  to  the 
rights  and  duties  of  citizenship,  the  right  of  property,  and  the 
security  and  sacredness  of  human  life."153  As  a  result  of  this 
resolution  and  the  agitation  which  gave  rise  to  it,  a  committee 
was  appointed  which  made  a  report  in  1909  upon  various 
phases  of  moral  training  and  recommended  special  instruction 
in  ethics,  not  in  the  form  of  precept,  but  through  consideration 
of  moral  questions  to  develop  the  conscience  through  reflection. 
At  this  convention  Mr.  Clifford  Barnes  rendered  the  report 
of  the  International  Committee  of  Moral  Training  and  included 
the  Department  of  Training  for  Citizenship.  One  thousand 
schools  were  brought  within  the  scope  of  investigation.  In  reply 
to  the  question  as  to  how  far  the  schools  succeeded  in  culti- 
vating a  sense  of  civic  responsibility  and  duty  to  the  State, 
52  per  cent  considered  their  schools  fairly  successful  in  this 
work;  48  per  cent  thought  that  their  results  were  far  from 
satisfactory.  The  following  answer  gives  an  idea  of  the  stand- 
ard according  to  which  the  judgments  were  made:  "As  civic- 
pride  is  the  basis  of  civic  duty,  I  had  the  teachers  call  the 
attention  of  pupils  to  places  and  buildings  made  sacred  by 
the  Kevolution,  and  to  have  the  pupils  visit  these  buildings 
and  write  essays  on  the  events  with  which  the  buildings  were 
associated.  Much  interest  was  manifested."154  It  may  be  in- 
ferred that  the  recommendations  of  the  American  Political 
Science  Association  concerning  the  teaching  of  civics  in  the 
grades  had  not  yet  been  generally  adopted. 

161  Cf.  American  Political  Science  Association  Proceedings,  1908,  p.  22(5. 
us  National  Educational  Association  Proceedings,  1907,  p.  29. 
154  Barnes,  Clifford,  "Moral  Training  Through  Public  Schools,"  National 
Educational  Association  Proceedings,  1909,  p.  137. 


54  Pedagogical  Value  of   Willingness 

IV.  Community  Civics 

Educators  are  convinced  that  civic  education  in  the  past 
has  been  ineffective.  Within  the  last  few  years  there  has  been 
formed  a  new  conception  of  the  aim  and  scope  of  the  study  of 
civics.  As  the  term  community  civics  signifies,  the  emphasis 
has  been  shifted  from  the  study  of  the  machinery  of  government 
to  the  cultivation  of  a  community  spirit  which  is  to  be  attained 
by  the  formation  of  civic  habits,  both  in  the  work  of  the  school 
and  in  the  pupils'  participation  in  the  activities  of  the  com- 
munity under  the  guidance  of  mature  minds.  The  distinction 
between  the  old  conception  of  civics  and  the  new,  parallels  the 
distinction  which  Dr.  Dewey  makes  between  the  "State"  as 
the  organization  of  the  resources  of  community  life  through 
the  machinery  of  legislation  and  administration  and  "Society" 
as  the  freer  play  of  forces  of  the  community  which  goes  on  in 
the  daily  intercourse  of  men  in  noninstitutional  ways.  He 
uses  the  phrase  "preparation  for  citizenship"  to  illustrate  his 
distinction.  "Citizenship  to  most  minds  means  a  distinctly 
political  thing.  It  is  defined  in  terms  of  relation  to  the  govern- 
ment, not  to  society  in  its  broader  aspects.  .  .  .  Our  com- 
munity life  has  awakened;  and  in  awakening  it  has  found  that 
governmental  institutions  and  affairs  represent  only  a  small 
part  of  the  important  purposes  and  difficult  problems  of  life; 
and  that  even  that  fraction  cannot  be  dealt  with  adequately 
except  in  the  light  of  a  wide  range  of  domestic,  economic  and 
scientific  considerations  quite  excluded  from  the  conception  of 
the  State,  of  citizenship."155  It  is  agreed  that  the  instruction 
in  civics  should  be  socialized;  this  means  essentially  that  it 
should  be  reorganized  to  adapt  it  to  the  pupil's  present  needs. 
Emphasis  is  placed  upon  the  importance  of  the  teacher's  focus- 
ing her  attention  upon  the  pupil's  present  needs  rather  than 
upon  his  future  demands,  and  of  seizing  the  "psychological  and 
social  moment  for  instruction  when  the  boy's  interests  are 
such  as  to  make  the  instruction  function  effectively  in  his 
processes  of  growth."156  The  keynote  of  modern  education  is 


166  Dewey,  J.,  "The  School  as  a  Center  of  Social  Life,"  National  Educational 
Association  Proceedings,  1902,  p.  374. 

166  Social  Studies  in  Secondary  Education,  Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin, 
1916,  No.  28,  p.  11. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  55 

"social  efficiency."  The  good  citizen  is  identified  with  the  effi- 
cient member  of  the  community  who  is  imbued  with  a  sense 
of  obligation  to  his  city,  state,  and  nation.157 

The  recommendations  of  the  American  Political  Science 
Association  of  1908  have  been  widely  adopted;  viz.,  that  be- 
ginning not  later  than  the  fifth  grade,  the  teacher  should  use 
as  topics  for  language  lessons  or  general  school  exercises,  some 
phase  of  city  government,  as  the  city  fire  department,  the  city 
lighting  plant,  the  telephone  exchange,  the  postoffice,  the  police 
service,  the  water  supply,  the  parks,  and  the  schools ;  also,  the 
men  and  women  distinguished  for  public  service.158  The  Report 
of  the  Committee  of  Eight  of  the  American  Historical  Asso- 
ciation for  elementary  schools  followed  in  1909  with  the  recom- 
mendation that  sociology  permeate  the  work  of  the  school  and 
that  the  aim  of  the  teaching  of  civics  be  to  help  the  pupil  to 
realize  himself  as  a  member  of  each  political  group  and  also 
to  help  him  to  realize,  among  other  things:  (l)What  are  the 
most  important  activities  done  by  each  group.  (2)  That  there 
should  be  reciprocal  exchange  of  honest  service  for  honest 
support  between  the  members  of  each  group,  the  office-holders 
and  the  public.169 

A  great  impetus  was  given  to  the  study  of  community  civics 
by  the  committee  on  social  studies,  one  of  the  committees  of 
the  commission  on  the  reorganization  of  secondary  education 
appointed  by  the  president  of  the  National  Educational  Asso- 
ciation in  1913,  assisted  by  a  special  committee  of  the  same 
commission.  The  committee  has  devoted  the  last  three  years 
to  the  reconstruction  of  the  social  studies  in  the  seventh  and 
eighth  grades  and  in  the  high  school.  It  is  convinced  that  the 
teachers  especially  of  these  departments  have  a  responsibility 
and  an  opportunity  to  improve  our  citizenship  which  can  be 
realized  only  by  giving  the  pupils  a  constructive  attitude 
toward  all  social  questions.  Moreover,  it  feels  that  the  youth 
of  the  country  should  be  imbued  with  an  unswerving  faith  in 
humanity  and  with  an  appreciation  of  the  institutions  which 


167  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  9. 

168  Cf.  American  Political  Association  Proceedings,  1908,  p-.  251. 

159  Cf.  American  Historical  Association  for  Elementary  Schools  Proceedings, 
New  York,  1909,  p.  121. 


56  Pedagogical  Value  of   Willingness 

have  contributed  to  the  advance  of  civilization.100  From  the 
data  derived  from  the  inquiry  into  the  social  conditions  and 
the  social  needs  of  the  citizen  of  the  United  States,  it  has 
formulated  the  principles  of  organization  of  the  content  of 
the  social  studies,  the  methods  of  presenting  them  and  the 
outlines  of  courses  for  secondary  schools  adapted  both  to  the 
8 — 4  and  to  the  6 — 3 — 3  plans  of  organization.  It  regards  as 
social  studies  those  "whose  subject  matter  relates  directly  to 
the  organization  and  development  of  human  society,  and  to 
man  as  a  member  of  social  groups."161  The  committee  assumes 
that  the  foundation  of  community  civics  has  been  laid  in  the 
elementary  grades  by  a  six-year  cycle,  beginning  with  the  first 
grade,  and  urges  that  more  consideration  be  given  to  the 
organic  continuity  of  this  cycle  than  hitherto  has  been  given. 
It  presents  outlines  for  two  courses:  the  junior  cycle,  grades 
VII,  VIII,  IX,  adapted  to  the  junior  high  school;  the  senior- 
cycle,  grades  X,  XI,  XII.  Below  the  eighth  grade,  civics  may 
be  studied  either  as  an  aspect  of  other  studies,  as  in  the  Indian- 
apolis schools,  or  as  a  distinct  subject  for  one  or  more  periods 
a  week,  as  in  Philadelphia.162  The  ninth  grade  civics  course 
emphasizes  the  state,  national,  and  world  aspects  of  the  sub- 
ject,163 and  vocational  civics.164  The  social  studies  of  the  senior 
cycle  include  European  history,  American  history,  and  problems 
of  American  democracy  with  the  organizing  principle  which 
characterizes  community  civics,  viz.,  "the  elements  of  wel- 
fare."165 The  committee  summarizes  appreciatively  the  prepara- 
tion which  community  civics  furnishes  for  the  higher  social 
studies:  "Community  civics  is  a  course  of  training  in  citizen- 
ship, organized  with  reference  to  the  pupils'  immediate  needs, 
rich  in  historical,  sociological,  economic,  and  political  relations, 
and  affording  a  logical  and  pedagogical  sound  avenue  of  ap- 
proach to  the  later  social  studies."166 
We  cannot  recall  too  often  that  the  essence  of  civic  educa- 


160  Cf.  Social  Studies  in  Secondary  Education,  Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin, 
1916,  No.  28,  p.  5. 
i"  Cf.  Ibid.,  p.  9. 
i«  Cf.  ibid.,  pp.  16,  17. 
i"  Cf.  ibid,  pp.  25,  26. 
184  Cf.  ibid.,  pp.  26-29. 
"«  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  23. 
«•  Ibid.,  p.  34. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  57 

tion  is  character,  rather  than  knowledge.  "Civic  education 
is  ...  a  process  of  cultivating  existing  tendencies,  traits, 
and  interests  .  .  .  (It  is)  a  cultivation  of  civic  qualities 
which  have  already  'sprouted'  and  which  will  continue  to  grow 
under  the  eyes  of  the  teacher."167 

In  the  following  observation  the  committee  seems  to  glimpse 
the  difficulty  which  lies  at  the  heart  of  the  task:  "Probably 
the  greatest  obstacle  to  the  vitalization  of  the  social  studies  is 
the  lack  of  preparation  on  the  part  of  the  teachers."168  But  the 
suggestion  of  the  training  of  teachers  here  given  is  of  a  purely 
intellectual  character:  "In  teacher-training  schools,  however, 
special  attention  should  be  given  to  methods  by  which  instruc- 
tion in  the  social  studies  may  be  made  to  meet  the  'needs  of 
present  growth'  in  pupils  of  elementary  and  high  school  age."109 
The  academic  and  professional  training  are  essentially  neces- 
sary, but  if  the  teacher  is  to  cultivate  in  the  pupils  the  con- 
structive attitude  toward  social  conditions  which  will  be 
fruitful  in  good  works,  the  question  arises:  Is  such  training 
adequate  preparation  for  the  teaching  of  a  subject  funda- 
mentally ethical?  Dr.  Kerschensteiner  says :  "No  person,  least 
of  all  the  young,  becomes  more  diligent,  careful,  thorough, 
attentive,  or  self-denying  as  a  result  of  the  most  careful  ex- 
hortations and  sermons  on  such  subjects  as  the  meaning  of 
diligence  and  indolence,  of  care  or  neglect,  of  devotion  and 
selfishness,  unless  we  take  pains  to  overcome  the  innate  selfish 
laziness,  the  germ  of  all."170  Effective  training  in  citizenship 
must  get  behind  the  springs  of  action  and  set  the  inner  forces 
working  right.  How  shall  we  develop  in  the  "habitual  center 
of  [the  pupil's]  personal  energy."171  disinterested  service,  that 
essential  note  of  citizenship?  To  inquire  into  this  question 
and  to  point  out  the  answer  will  be  the  purpose  of  the  next 
chapter. 


167  Dunn,  A.  W.,  "Standards  by  Which  to  Test  the  Value  of  Civics  Instruc- 
tion," Social  Studies  in  Secondary  Education,  op.  cit.t  p.  57. 
i«  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  58. 
189  Ibid.,  p.  59. 

170  Kerschensteiner,  G.,  op.  cit.,  p.  54. 

171  James.  W.,  Varieties  of  Religiout  Experience.     New  York,  1902,  p.  196. 


CHAPTEE  IV 

THE  PERSONALITY  OF  THE  TEACHER 

The  vital  factor  in  effective  civic  education,  as  in  all  moral 
training,  is  the  training  of  the  will  to  habits  of  action.  While 
knowledge  is  an  important  element  in  the  process,  an  idea  of 
itself  does  not  determine  conduct  which  it  can-  modify  only 
through  its  effect  on  the  will.  Can  virtue  be  taught?  is  a  well- 
worn  question  from  the  days  of  Socrates.  Instruction  and 
exhortation  do  not  of  themselves  reach  the  springs  of  conduct. 
"Omne  vivens  ex  vivente" :  Life  communicates  life.  "Morality, 
like  culture,  like  religion,  is  propagated,  not  evolved.  .  .  . 
Character  builds  character.  Which  are  the  virtues  that  make 
man  worthy  and  strong?  Are  they  not  truthfulness,  sincerity, 
reverence,  honesty,  obedience,  chastity,  patience,  mildness, 
industry,  politeness,  sobriety,  reasonableness,  perseverance? 
Who  can  propagate  these  virtues?  They  in  whom  they  are 
living  powers — they  and  they  alone."172  Since  moral  education 
consists  in  training  the  will  to  right  choice,  we  face  the  question, 
How  can  the  will  be  reached  ?  It  is  the  active  side  of  human 
nature.  It  is  the  power  whereby  one  is  master  of  one's  own 
actions.  In  the  training  of  the  pupil  it  is  important  that  the 
conditions  affecting  his  volitional  activity  be  favorable  for  the 
formation  of  good  habits. 

The  source  of  the  will's  freedom  is  intelligence.  However, 
illumined  though  it  be  by  the  intellect,  the  will  receives  no 
force  from  an  idea  alone ;  but  let  this  same  idea  be  tempered 
with  emotion,  it  becomes  an  impelling  motive,  enabling  a  man 
to  translate  an  heroic  conception  into  conduct.  Hence,  although 
principles  of  conduct  are  important  to  point  the  way,  of  them 
selves  they  are  futile  for  action.  In  some  way  they  must  be 
energized  with  emotion.  The  trained  will  is  able  to  accomplish 
this  fusing  of  idea  and  emotion.  For  the  pupil,  however,  whose 
will  is  yet  unformed,  the  idea  must  be  made  attractive  and 
quickened  and  vivified  by  the  teacher's  living  presence  in 
order  to  stimulate  to  right  action. 


172Spalding,  J.  L.,  Opportunity.     Chicago,  1903,  p.  100. 

58 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  59 

The  advocates  of  direct  moral  instruction  agree  that  the 
most  efficacious  means  of  cultivating  a  virtue  in  pupils  is  by 
the  narration  of  stories  to  stir  admiration  for  the  man  in 
whom  the  virtue  shines.173  As  the  shadow  to  the  reality  is  the 
most  vivid  word  picture  of  the  hero  to  the  object  lesson  of  the 
living  teacher  who  shows  forth  in  her174  personality  the  virtues 
that  she  would  have  the  pupils  form  in  the  development  of 
their  character.  The  thrill  of  admiration  which  her  actions 
evoke  will  be  a  force  to  arouse  the  inner  potency  of  the  pupil 
to  reach  out  and  strive  to  copy  the  pattern.  "For  humanity 
and  zeal,  public  spirit  and  liberality  develop  quickest  under 
the  attraction  of  a  living  example,  when  opportunities  for 
moral  action  are  present  in  abundance.  With  this  magic  wand 
we  draw  civic  virtue  from  every  youthful  heart  that  we 
touch."175 

The  primordial  attraction-repugnance  instinct  is  deeply 
rooted  in  the  child's  nature  and  is  a  source  of  energy  which 
may  take  the  form  of  either  enthusiasm  or  scorn  in  regard  to 
the  qualities  of  character.  This  instinct  enters  largely  into 
that  "complex  of  instincts  suggested  by  the  name  imitation."1™ 
The  reactions  of  the  child's  instinct  of  imitation  upon  the 
objects  of  his  environment  determine  the  foundation  of  his 
social  consciousness.  "It  is  by  imitation  that  the  child  learns 
its  language.  It  is  by  imitation  that  it  acquires  all  the  social 
tendencies  that  make  it  a  tolerable  member  of  society.  Its 
imitativeness  is  the  source  of  an  eager  and  restless  activity 
which  the  child  pursues  for  years  under  circumstances  of  great 
difficulty,  and  even  when  the  processes  involved  seem  to  be 
more  painful  than  pleasurable.  Imitativeness  remains  with  UP 
through  life."177 


173  Cf .  Sneath  and  Hodges,  Moral  Training  in  School  and  Home.     New  York, 
1913,  p.  5.     Gould,  F.  G.,   "The  Positive  Method  of  Moral  Instruction," 
Memoires  sur  L' Education  Morale,    Congres  d,  la  Haye,  1912,  p.  334.     Thora- 
dike,  E.  L.,  Principles  of  Teaching.     New  York,  1906,  p.  193. 

174  The  predominating  numbers  of  women  as  teachers  both  in  the  Catholic 
school  and  in  the  State  school  warrant  the  use  of  the  feminine  pronoun  through- 
out the  study.     80.2  per  cent  of  the  teachers  in  the  elementary  and  secondary 
State  schools  are  women.     Cf.  Bureau  of  Education,  unpublished  statistics, 
1914. 

176  Kerschensteiner,  op.  cit.,  p.  121. 

178  Royce,  J.,  Outlines  of  Psychology.     New  York,  1903,  p.  276. 

177  Ibid.,  p.  276. 


60  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

Teaching  is  a  spiritual  art  in  which  mind  cooperates  with 
mind.  In  this  respect  it  may  be  classified  with  the  high  arts 
of  music,  poetry,  and  oratory.  In  all  forms  of  artistic  activity 
principles  are  not  learned  as  generalizations  or  explanations 
of  facts,  but  they  are  incorporated  into  the  method  of  action 
and  direct  the  manner  of  expressing  the  ideals  in  the  artist's 
mind.178  The  science  of  teaching  takes  account  of  the  end  and 
means  of  education  and  the  nature  of  the  material  to  be  taught, 
and  it  is  a  prerequisite  to  successful  teaching.  The  spirit  and 
educative  power  of  the  teacher,  which  in  so  far  as  it  is  not  a 
native  endowment  must  be  acquired  through  self-cultivation 
of  character,  is  not  less  essential. 

That  the  teacher  is  the  only  artist  who  cannot  represent  the 
virtues  that  she  does  not  possess  is  a  serious  thought  for  all 
who  would  assume  the  responsibility  of  forming  the  character 
of  pupils.  She  works  with  a  complex  human  being  who  is  grad- 
ually learning  to  think,  and  who  will  grow  into  a  more  valuable 
person  who  will  think  and  will  for  himself.  The  vital  factor 
in  this  process  is  not  so  much  the  method  followed  as  the 
dynamic  force  of  personality  of  the  teacher,  who  should  ex- 
emplify in  a  positive  way  the  virtues  which  she  would  form 
the  pupils  to  practice.  Her  qualities  will  be  taken  over  by 
them  in  an  unreflective  but  unfailing  way  in  accordance  with 
the  principle  of  imitation.  The  work  of  the  teacher  is  a  kind 
of  personal  intercourse  with  the  pupil,  second  only  to  that  of 
parent  and  child.  It  is  a  matter  of  general  acceptance  that 
"the  close  mental  and  moral  resemblances  of  children  to  parents 
are  largely  the  result  of  imitation."179  In  so  far  as  the  children 
are  under  the  influence  of  the  teacher,  they  acquire  her  char- 
acteristics. "Heredity  does  not  stop  with  birth.7'180  "It  is 
inevitable  that  he  [the  child]  tnake  up  his  personality,  under 
limitations  of  heredity,  by  imitation,  out  of  the  'copy'  set  in 
the  actions,  temper,  emotions  of  the  persons  who  build  around 
him  the  social  enclosure  of  his  childhood."181  The  child's  organ- 


ic Cf.  Ladd,  G.  T.,  The  Practical  Philosophy  of  the  Teacher.     New  York, 
1911,  p.  17. 

179  Ross,  E.  A.,  Social  Control.     New  York,  1901,  p.  163. 

180  Baldwin,  J.  M.,  Mental  Development  in  the  Child  and  the  Race,  New  York, 
1903,  p.  361. 

»81  Ibid.,  p.  357. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  01 

isin  is  sensitive,  plastic,  and  full  of  vitality.  As  it  develops  and 
differentiates,  its  vitality  grows  less,  but  in  the  same  propor- 
tion the  nerve  elements  lose  their  instability  and  take  on  a 
permanence  integrating  the  "copy"  into  their  own  nerve  fiber. 
"Imitation  is  the  method  by  which  the  milieu  of  thought  and 
feeling  in  all  its  aspects  gets  carried  over  and  reproduced 
within  us  in  a  system  of  relationships  to  which  we  have  learned 
to  react."182  "In  Leibnitz's  phrase,  the  boy  or  girl  is  a  social 
monad,  a  little  world,  which  reflects  the  whole  system  of  in- 
fluences coming  to  stir  its  sensibility.  And  just  in  as  far  as 
his  sensibilities  are  stirred  he  imitates  and  forms  habits  of 
imitating;  and  habits — they  are  character!"183  The  position 
of  the  teacher  gives  her  a  prestige  next  to  that  of  the  parent  in 
the  eyes  of  the  pupil.  "A  child  is  unquestionably  a  true  som- 
nambulist.184 .  .  .  When  a  ten  or  twelve  year  old  boy 
leaves  his  family  for  school  he  seems  to  himself  to  have  become 
demagnetized,  to  have  been  aroused  from  his  dream  of  parental 
respect  and  admiration.  Whereas,  in  reality,  he  becomes  still 
more  prone  to  admiration  and  imitation  in  his  submission  to 
the  ascendancy  of  one  of  his  masters  or,  better  still,  of  some 
prestigeful  classmate."185  Dr.  Boss  emphasizes  the  partial  sub 
stitution  of  the  teacher  for  the  parent  as  a  model  upon  which 
the  child  forms  his  character.  "Copy  the  child  will  and  the 
teacher  is  a  picked  person.  Childhood  is  the  heyday  of  per- 
sonal influence.  The  position  of  the  teacher  gives  him  prestige 
and  the  lad  will  take  from  him  suggestions  that  the  adult  will 
accept  only  from  rare  personalities.  .  .  .  It  is  possible  to 
fix  in  the  plastic  child-mind  principles  upon  which,  later,  may 
be  built  a  huge  structure  of  practical  consequence."186 

The  principle  of  imitation  and  the  force  of  personal  example 
was  turned  to  advantage  by  the  ancient  Greeks,  who,  although 
they  may  not  have  had  critical  insight  into  the  psychological 
process  of  the  operation  of  these  laws,  yet  recognized  and  ap- 
preciated their  practical  value  in  the  training  of  youth.  One 

182  Ibid.,  p.  324. 

183  Ibid.,  p.  358. 

184  In  the  sense  of  being  deprived  of  the  power  of  resistance.     Cf.  Tarde,  G., 
The  Laws  of  Imitation,  translated  by  Parsons,  E.  C.     New  York,  1903,  p.  81. 

185  Ibid.,  pp.  82,  83. 

186  Ross,  E.  A.,  op.  cit.,  pp.  164-66. 


62  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

means  of  developing  character  among  them,  so  widely  adopted 
as  to  be  known  as  an  institution,  was  the  habitual  association 
of  a  youth  with  an  older  man  in  the  relation  of  ''inspired"  and 
"inspirer."  This  definite  effort  of  character  building  through 
personality  is  in  perfect  accord  with  the  scientific  principle 
of  imitation  and  is  one  of  the  contributions  of  Greek  education 
which  might  be  adapted  to  conditions  of  modern  educational 
practice.  The  nearest  approach  to  the  method  of  the  Greeks 
in  making  personal  example  a  character-forming  influence  was 
the  tutorial  system  of  England  a  half  century  ago.  At  Kugby 
every  boy  was  assigned  to  a  classical  tutor  and  spent  some 
hours  each  week  with  him  during  his  entire  school  life,  enjoy- 
ing friendly,  even  intimate,  relations  with  him.187 

Since  the  work  of  the  teacher  in  the  process  of  education  is 
to  help  the  pupil  to  self-realization;  that  is,  to  develop  his 
potential  personality  by  directing  his  self-activity  of  intellect, 
sensibility,  and  will  so  that  he  will  form  himself  into  a  person 
of  character;  and  since  the  effective  instrument  in  this  su- 
premely important  work  is  the  personality  of  the  teacher,  the 
question  forces  itself  upon  one,  What  is  meant  by  personality? 
In  the  sense  of  the  realization  of  moral  freedom,  personality 
was  discovered  by  the  Greeks  when  they  began  to  reflect  on 
the  freedom  which  they  had  won  by  the  exercise  of  their  indi- 
vidual initiative.  Their  conception  of  it  was  narrow,  based 
not  upon  the  personal  worth  of  man  as  such,  but  upon  the 
personal  worth  of  the  free  citizen.  Aristotle  attained  the 
highest  development  not  only  in  Greek,  but  in  all  pre-Christian 
thought ;  and  yet  he  regarded  personality  not  as  the  personality 
of  man  for  the  sake  of  his  humanity,  but  as  the  personality  of 
a  free  citizen.  Not  human  dignity  but  citizenship  was  the 
basis  of  personal  worth.188  Some  men  were  born  to  be  savages, 
others  to  be  artisans  and  slaves.  The  true  ground  of  per- 
sonality, the  inherent  dignity  of  manhood  with  the  powers  of 
intellect  and  self-determination  is  the  product  of  Christianity. 
Each  may  improve  the  value  of  his  personality  by  his  own 
activity.  "The  true  ideal  of  a  fully  developed  personality  does 


187  Cf.  Wilson,  J.  M.,  "Introduction"  to    School  Homilies  by  Sidgwick,  A. 
London,  1916,  pp.  9,  10. 

188  Cf.  Pace,  E.  A.,  "Education,"  Catholic  Encyclopedia,  Vol.  V.,  p.  297. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  G3 

not  consist  merely  in  a  keen  intellectual  acumen,  nor  in  an 
intense,  but  inactive,  susceptibility  to  the  moods  of  happy 
feeling,  nor  in  a  perpetual  unresting  activity;  it  involves  a 
balance  of  all  these  elements."189 

Pestalozzi  was  the  great  apostle  of  the  personality  of  the 
teacher.180  He,  as  one  of  the  founders  of  the  new  education, 
held  that  the  teacher's  task  was  a  "continual  benevolent  super- 
intendence,191 whose  chief  work  was  to  cultivate  through  "a 
thinking  love"192  the  self-activity  of  the  child  in  order  to  call 
forth  the  powers  which  Divine  Providence  had  implanted  in  the 
mind.  He  was  the  first  modern  educator  who  advocated  and  in- 
culcated unlimited  faith  in  the  power  of  human  love.  In  his 
plant  metaphor,  the  work  of  the  teacher  is  to  stimulate,  in  the 
large  sense  of  the  word,  the  child  to  develop  the  power  which 
Providence  has  implanted,  and  it  is  important  to  note  that  the 
work  of  stimulating  is  extended  to  include  pruning  and  grafting 
upon  a  kindred  stem,  but  never  to  the  work  of  transplanting. 
We  do  not  plant  the  roots  of  habit.  The  native  tendencies  or 
instincts,  active  or  dormant,  which  are  the  basis  of  habits,  are 
already  a  part  of  the  child's  organism. 

Pestalozzi  recognized  the  strategic  point  which  the  emotions 
hold  in  the  forming  of  character  by  this  power  of  fusing  the 
ideas  and  the  will.  This  "thinking  love,"  or  sympathetic  in- 
sight, constituting  the  primal  qualification  of  the  teacher  may 
be  interpreted  as  seeing  through  the  child's  eyes,  but  with  the 
teacher's  own  clearer  vision.  Pestalozzi's  conception  of  the 
teacher's  function  may  be  inferred  from  the  following:  "The 
better  education  of  which  I  dream  reminds  me  of  a  tree  planted 
by  the  river  side.  What  is  that  tree?  Where  has  it  sprung 
from,  with  its  roots,  trunk,  branches,  twigs  and  fruits?  You 
plant  a  tiny  seed  in  the  ground;  in  that  seed  lies  the  whole 
nature  of  the  tree.  .  .  .  The  growth  of  the  tree  is  like  that 
of  man.  .  .  .  Man's  capacity  for  faith  and  love  is  to  him 


189  Wallace,  W.,  Lectures  and  Essays.     Oxford,  1898,  p.  297. 

190  Cf.  Mark,  H.  Thistleton,  Individuality  and  the  Moral  Aim  in  American 
Education.     London,  1901,  p.  123. 

191  Pestalozzi,  How  Gertrude  Teaches  Her  Children,  quoted  in  Pestalozzi  by 
Holman,  H.     New  York,  1908,  p.  191. 

192  Pestalozzi,  Letters  on  Early  Education  Addressed  to  Graves,  J.  P.     Lon- 
don, 1827,  p.  5. 


64  Pedagogical  Value  of   Willingness 

from  the  point  of  view  of  his  education  just  what  the  roots 
are  to  the  growth  of  the  tree.  By  means  of  the  root  the  tree 
draws  nourishment  from  the  earth  for  all  its  parts.  Men  must 
see  that  the  roots  of  their  own  high  nature  preserve  a  like 
power.  .  .  .  What  is  the  true  type  of  education  ?  It  is  like 
the  art  of  the  gardener  under  whose  care  a  thousand  trees 
bloom  and  grow.  .  .  .  He  plants  and  waters,  but  God  gives 
the  increase.  .  .  .  He  only  watches  that  no  external  force 
should  injure  the  roots,  the  trunk,  or  the  branches  of  the  tree. 
So  with  the  educator :  he  imparts  no  single  power  to  men.  He 
gives  neither  life  nor  breath.  He  only  watches  lest  any  external 
force  should  injure  or  disturb.  He  takes  care  that  development 
runs  its  course  in  accordance  with  its  own  laws."193 

Pestalozzi's  plant  metaphor  contains  implicitly  the  present 
educational  doctrine  that  the  teacher's  function  is  to  minister 
to  the  needs  of  present  growth  of  the  pupil;  to  find  truth  at 
its  sources  and  present  it  to  the  child  in  a  form  and  method 
suited  to  his  capacity.194  The  task  of  the  teacher,  therefore,  is 
to  help  the  pupil  in  his  progress  toward  true  personality,  which 
he  must  achieve  for  himself  through  self-realization. 

Saint  Thomas's  idea  of  the  function  of  the  teacher,  as  set 
forth  in  his  theory  of  education  in  De  Magistro,  is  essentially 
that  of  stimulating  the  mind  to  self-activity  and  of  furnishing 
suitable  material  for  it  at  each  stage  of  its  development.  The 
mind  endowed  with  the  seeds  of  knowledge,  scientiarum  semina, 
has  the  germinal  capacity  or  inborn  tendency  to  intellectual 
activity.  It  develops  only  by  its  reactions  upon  the  stimuli  of 
its  environment.  This  principle  of  self-activity  of  the  mind 
lays  upon  the  teacher  the  duty  to  suggest  and  to  direct,  and  to 
minister  to  the  growing  intellect  material  suitable  to  evoke 
the  vital  response  of  its  native  energy.  Saint  Thomas's  ap- 
preciation of  the  dignity  and  responsibility  of  the  teacher  in 
developing  the  rationes  seminales  of  the  child-mind  can  scarcely 
be  exaggerated.  He  regarded  the  task  of  the  educator  in  min- 
istering to  the  development  of  the  intellect  and  the  will,  the 
greatest  powers  in  the  universe  and  destined  for  immortality, 


193  Pestalozzi,  Educational  Writings,  edited  by  Green,  J.  A.     London,  1912, 
pp.  188,  189,  195. 

194  Cf.  Shields,  T.  E.,  The  Psychology  of  Education.     Washington,  1905,  .p  39. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  65 

as  a  divine  work,  and  the  educator,  a  cooperator  with  God 
Himself.195 

Since  man  is  fundamentally  social,  it  is  only  in  society  that 
the  whole  man  is  called  out,  volitionally,  emotionally,  and 
intellectually.  Self-realization,  therefore,  has  both  a  subjective 
and  an  objective  reference.  We  shall  consider  first  the  personal 
reference.  Human  nature  undisciplined  is  an  anarchy  of  appe- 
tites and  tendencies.196  The  child  is  purely  a  creature  of 
impulses  overflowing  with  spontaneous  activities.  Education 
is  to  put  him  in  possession  of  himself  by  making  his  action 
self-controlled.  He  wins  his  moral  freedom  through  the 
struggle  of  his  two  selves  in  the  process  of  organizing  and 
ordering  these  two  sets  of  opposing  tendencies  and  subordinat- 
ing the  lower  to  the  higher.  The  child's  will  is  formed  by  per- 
sistent efforts  and  innumerable  acts.  Personality  is  the 
achievement  wrought  by  the  will  ruling  the  natural  impulses; 
that  is,  in  the  constant  reaction  upon  the  child's  inherent  self- 
ishness of  the  ideals  which  have  captivated  him.  Virtue  must 
be  made  attractive  to  call  out  the  effort  to  pursue  it.  But 
admiration  and  enthusiasm  on  the  part  of  the  child  are  not 
enough.  Here  the  "thinking  love"  of  the  teacher  should  recog- 
nize a  second  essential  in  order  to  make  the  ideal  actual.  If 
the  child  is  to  attain  the  virtue,  the  conditions  to  practice  it 
must  be  in  the  beginning  as  favorable  as  possible.  He  must 
not  only  be  sustained,  but  he  must  be  attracted  at  first  to  react 
in  such  a  way  as  to  initiate  acts  which  shall  form  good  habits 
and  cause  the  ideal  to  spring  into  life.  Let  us  take  the  funda- 
mental virtue  of  truth,  which  is  the  very  core  of  character  and 
which  should  be  cultivated  so  carefully  that  the  mind  will  take 
the  set  of  sincerity.  Truth  must  be  a  part  of  the  teacher's  moral 
equipment  and  her  appreciation  of  its  excellence  and  beauty 
should  evoke  a  love  for  it  in  the  pupils;  but  she  should  go 
further  and  link  truth  writh  such  kindness  of  heart  as  will 
make  it  easy  for  every  child  to  tell  the  truth.  Dr.  Foerster 


195  Cf.  Pace,  E.  A.,   "Saint  Thomas's  Theory  of  Education,"  Catholic  Univer- 
sity Bulletin,  Vol.  8,  pp.  293ff. 

196  Cf.  "Ce  qui  frappe  tout  psychologue  et  tout  educateur  non  aveugle  par 
une  idee  precongue,  c'est  que  1'enfant  sain  est  une  anarchic  d'idees,  d'appetits 
et  de  tendances."     Payot,  J.,  "L'Education  du  Caractere,"  Revue  Philoso- 
pkique,  Vol.  XXXVIII,  p.  611. 


66  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

says :  "One  of  the  highest  principles  of  social  and  civic  educa 
tion  consists  in  forming  an  alliance  between  the  creative  per 
sonal  energy  and  the  striving  for  the  preservation  and  improve- 
ment of  human  society.  Instead  of  merely  teaching  a  union  as 
an  abstract  principle  of  civic  morality,  the  teacher  must  ask 
himself:  In  what  simple  and  concrete  life-incidents  can  I 
embody  this  principle?  .  .  . 

"Let  us  take  the  conflict  between  truth  and  love  of  neighbor. 
Some  wish  to  sacrifice  truth  to  humanity;  others,  humanity 
to  truth.  For  the  advancement  of  social  culture  it  is  important 
that  the  young  person  be  urged  to  make  a  synthesis  between 
the  personal  conscience  and  the  claims  of  charity,  and  to  hold 
it  in  high  regard.  In  our  example,  the  synthesis  is  feasible  only 
on  condition  that  the  absolute  truth  is  adhered  to,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  greatest  care  is  taken  to  strenghen  and  sustain 
him  whom  we  credit  with  the  love  of  truth.  We  must  help  him 
to  such  a  spiritual  condition  that  he  is  able  to  feel  the  truth 
which  must  become  fruitful  in  his  life  and  soul.  In  the  manner 
in  which  we  speak  the  truth  we  attack  his  self-respect  so  un- 
sparingly that  he  does  not  recognize  our  truth.  And  we  forget 
that  truth  itself  suffers  if  it  is  separated  from  social  deli- 
cacy."197 


197  "Bins  der  hochsten  Prinzipien  sozialer  und  staatlicher  Erziehung  besteht 
nun  darin,  die  schopferische  personliche  Energie  eng  mit  Streben  nach  Bewah- 
rung  und  Vertiefung  menschlicher  Gemeinschaft  zu  verkniipfen.  Statt  nun 
solche  Verkniipfung  bloss  als  abstraktes  Prinzip  staatsbiirglicher  Gesittung 
zu  lehren,  muss  der  Erzieher  sich  fratgen:  In  welchen  einfachen  und  kon- 
kreten  Lebensvorgangen  kann  ich  dies  Prinzip  verkorpern?  .  .  . 

"Nehmen  wir  den  Konflikt  von  Wahrhaftigheit  und  Menschenliebe.  Die 
einen  wollen  hier  die  Wahrheit  der  Humanitat,  die  andern  die  Humanitat  der 
Wahrheit  opfern. 

"Es  ist  nun  fiir  die  Ausgestaltung  sozialer  Kultur  sehr  bedeutungsvoll,  das 
mann  junge  Menschen  dazu  anregt,  in  solchen  Konflikten  eine  Synthese 
zwischen  dem  personlichsten  Gewissen  und  den  Forderungen  der  Liebe  und 
Riicksicht  ausfindig  zu  machen.  In  unserm  Beispiel  ist  die  Synthese  nur  so 
denkbar,  das  zwar  die  unbedingte  Wahrhaftigkeit  festgehalten,  aber  zugleich 
die  grosste  Sorgfalt  aufgewendet  wird,  den  Menchen  zu  starken  und  auf- 
zurichten,  dem  wir  die  Wahrheit  zumuten.  Wir  miissen  ihm  in  den  seelischen 
Zustand  helfen,  in  dem  er  fahig  ist,  die  Wahrheit  zu  ertragen,  ja  dieselbe  fiir 
sein  Leben  und  seine  Seele  fruchtbar  zu  machen.  .  .  .  Durch  die  Art,  wie 
wir  die  Wahrheit  sagen,  greifen  wir  die  Selbstachtung  des  andern  so  shon- 
ungslos  an,  dass  er  sich  nicht  fahig  fiihlt,  unsere  Wahrheit  anzuerkennen. 
.  Und  wir  vergessen,  dass  die  Wahrhaftigkeit  selber  leidet,  wenn  sie  sich 
von  der  Verbindung  mit  sozialer  Feinheit  lost." 

Foerster,  F.  W.,  Staalsbiirgerliche  Erziehung.     Berlin,  1914,  pp.  120,  121. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  67 

In  the  minds  of  many,  education  is  essentially  a  social  process 
with  a  social  viewpoint.198  Fitting  the  individual  for  the  highest 
social  service  becomes  the  aim  of  their  system.  "We  must  take 
the  child  as  a  member  of  society  in  the  broadest  sense,  and 
demand  whatever  is  necessary  to  enable  the  child  to  recognize 
all  his  social  relations,  and  to  carry  them  out."199  Granting, 
however,  that  the  purpose  of  training  citizens  is  to  secure 
better  service  for  the  State  and  that  all  education  involves  a 
social  ideal,  the  only  effective  way  to  secure  better  service  is 
to  make  more  intelligent  and  more  moral  each  individual  of 
the  group.  We  shall  consider  morality,  therefore,  from  the 
two-fold  viewpoint:  (1)  subjective,  or  personal;  (2)  objective, 
or  social.  Morality  is  fundamentally  subjective  and  personal. 
It  is  interior  in  its  origin  and  motive ;  it  is  largely  exterior  in 
its  reference.  The  inner  purpose  as  a  basic  attitude  of  life  is 
the  first  consideration.  It  is  widely  deplored  that  our  remark- 
able industrial  progress  has  brought  with  it  a  loosening  of 
the  conscience  in  business  and  politics.  "Good  citizenship 
requires  common  honesty,  business  integrity  and  truth-telling. 
What  about  the  appalling  revelations  made  within  the  last 
three  years  in  so  many  places  concerning  the  adulterations  of 
drugs,  foods,  and  drinks;  about  our  growing  money  madness, 
and  what  is  becoming  of  business  integrity  under  the  methods 
of  competing  cheapness  of  productions,  trusts,  and  combina- 
tions that  control  the  prices  and  output  and  even  the  interests 
of  life ;  about  secret  rebates  and  the  suppression  of  the  natural 
laws  of  competition?  .  .  .  We  delude  ourselves  that  these 
evils  can  be  overcome  by  neatness,  order,  the  moral  influence 
of  music  and  history,  by  emphasizing  and  teaching  respect  for 
authority,  by  self-government,  good  character,  and  the  example 
of  teachers.  Yet  these  are  the  only  cures  I  find  in  the  latest 
discussions  of  the  pedagogy  of  the  present."200  Barring  the 
adulterations  of  foods,  an  evil  which  the  National  Pure  Food 
Law,  passed  June  30,  1906,  has  checked  in  great  measure,  this 
grave  charge  of  the  lack  of  ethical  standards,  want  of  public 


198  Cf.  King,  I.,  Social  Aspects  of  Education.     New  York,  1912. 

199  Dewey,  J.,  Educational  Essays.     London,  ed.  by  Findlay,  p.  28. 

200  Hall,  G.  S.,  "Relation  of  the  Church  to  the  State,"  Pedagogical  Seminary, 
Vol.  XV,  pp.  191-92. 


G8  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

responsibility,  and  unrestrained  self-interest  made  by  Dr.  G. 
Stanley  Hall  in  1908,  may  be  made  with  an  equal  basis  of  fact, 
at  the  present  time.  It  is  an  acknowledgment  of  the  need  of 
developing  the  personal  conscience  of  the  child  in  order  to 
lead  him  to  lay  hold  of  the  virtues  indispensable  to  integrity  of 
character.  "True  self-realization,  the  consideration  of  others, 
the  maintenance  of  society,  are  all  conditioned  upon  the  deepest 
relations  of  our  spiritual  health.  The  State  needs  the  soul— 
the  soul  needs  the  State."201 

The  objective  or  social  reference  of  morality  considers  the 
individual  as  a  member  of  society.  It  is  through  society  that 
man  attains  self-realization.  His  native  capacities  and  powers 
are  developed  by  cooperating  writh  the  other  members  of  the 
group.  In  the  fulfillment  of  his  social  obligations  he  develops 
his  sense  of  truth,  justice,  and  charity.  In  proportion  as  these 
virtues  form  the  basis  of  his  social  relations,  he  attains  the 
objective  end  of  morality.  Under  these  two  essential  aspects 
of  morality,  the  intention  of  the  act  and  the  object  of  the  act 
with  its  circumstances,  man  is  considered  as  acting  both  as  a 
citizen  of  an  unseen  world  and  as  a  member  of  society. 

Training  for  citizenship  of  the  present  day  is  directed  to 
training  in  social  conduct.  The  specific  aims  of  community 
civics  to  attain  this  end  are: 

"1.  To  see  the  importance  and  significance  of  the  elements 
of  community  welfare  in  their  relations  to  himself  and  to  the 
communities  of  which  he  is  a  member. 

"2.  To  know  the  social  agencies,  governmental  and  voluntary, 
that  exist  to  secure  these  elements  of  community  welfare. 

"3.  To  recognize  his  civic  obligations,  present  and  future, 
and  to  respond  to  them  by  appropriate  action."202 

These  aims  are  all  concerned  with  man's  corporate  life;  his 
duties  flow  entirely  from  his  social  relationships  and  obliga- 
tions; his  personality  is  recognized  only  so  far  as  he  is  a 
member  of  society,  and  his  ideals  are  all  social  ideals.  Social 
relationships,  it  is  true,  constitute  a  great  share  of  man's  moral 


201  "Das  Sicheinordnen,  das  Denken  an  die  andern  das  Gemeinshaft-Halten 
gehort  eben  auch  zu  den  tiefsten  Bedingungen  unserer  seelischen  Gesundheit. 
Der  Staat  braucht  die  Seele — die  Seele  braucht  den  Staat!"     Foerster,  F.  W., 
Staatsbilrgerliche  Erziehnng.     Berlin,  1914,  pp.  123-24. 

202  The  Teaching  of  Community  Civics,  Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin  No, 
23,  1915,  p.  12. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  69 

life.  His  duties  as  a  citizen  require  him  to  be  benevolently 
interested  in  the  welfare  of  his  fellows.  But  the  first  essential 
is  to  plant  deep  the  roots  of  morality  by  making  the  child  feel 
his  personal  responsibility  as  a  citizen  of  an  unseen  world. 
Kesponsibility  as  a  member  of  the  social  group  and  subordina- 
tion of  personal  interest  to  the  public  good  are  vital  both  for 
morality  and  for  citizenship  and  flow  naturally  from  the  prin- 
ciple of  personal  responsibility.  The  teacher  whose  personality 
has  been  formed  upon  these  lines,  whose  conception  of  duty  in- 
cludes ideal  interests  of  both  personal  integrity  and  social 
obligations,  will  endeavor  to  lay  deep  in  the  heart  of  the  pupil 
the  principle  that  his  relation  to  society  is  one  of  willing- 
cooperation,  and  to  train  him  to  habits  of  ready  service  to  the 
community.  "In  our  demands  for  citizenship,  we  cannot  stop 
short  of  the  man  capable  of  devotion.  If  a  man  does  not  allow 
himself  to  feel  the  joy  of  self-sacrifice  in  a  righteous  cause,  he 
is  not  out  of  the  reach  of  private  gain."203 

Absence  of  personal  responsibility  is  probably  the  greatest 
evil  that  threatens  society  today.  The  child  must  come  to 
realize  that  no  individual  lives  to  himself,  but  that  he  owes  to 
his  fellow-men  duties  which  must  be  fulfilled  not  from  any 
hope  of  compensation,  but  from  the  obligation  laid  upon  him 
to  help  his  neighbor.  In  this  light  the  duties  of  citizenship 
become  a  matter  of  high  principle.  Mutual  support  flowing 
from  the  principle  of  human  solidarity  has  always  been  a 
fundamental  Christian  principle.  "Bear  ye  one  another's  bur- 
dens ;  and  so  you  shall  fulfill  the  law  of  Christ."204  The  mere 
teaching  of  this  principle  is  apt  to  degenerate  into  formal 
routine.  It  is  for  the  teacher  to  aid  in  translating  it  into  con- 
duct by  helping  the  child  to  an  understanding  of  the  ways  in 
which  it  may  be  done  by  leading  the  way  and  showing  an 
example  of  unselfish  devotion  to  large  interests.  She  should 
have  an  idea  of  what  community  service  is.  She  should  inspire 
and  support  movements  in  the  school  to  cultivate  a  civic  spirit. 
She  should  generate  a  sacrificing  spirit  which,  in  order  to 
have  a  force  adequate  to  command  the  will,  should  not  be  a 
love  of  neighbor  whose  inspiring  motive  is  our  common  hu- 
manity, but  a  love  of  neighbor  whose  inspiration  is  fraternity 


203  Tucker,  W.  J.,  Public- Mindedness.     Concord,  1910,  p.  4. 
*>4  Galatians,  VI,  2. 


70  Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness 

through  communion  with  Christ.  The  more  thoroughly  she 
is  permeated  with  this  community  spirit,  the  more  she  will 
charge  the  atmosphere  of  the  school  room  with  the  same  spirit. 
The  close  relation  that  the  teacher's  devotion  to  a  cause  sus- 
tains to  the  effectiveness  of  her  teaching  to  promote  the  cause 
is  illustrated  in  the  results  of  the  instruction  of  the  injurious 
effects  of  alcohol  and  narcotics.  In  forty-six  States  legislation 
provides,  either  explicitly  by  statute,  or  implicitly  by  making 
it  an  academic  branch  required  for  every  grade  of  certificate, 
that  instruction  in  this  subject  be  given,205  yet  the  work  has 
been  done  effectively  only  where  the  teacher  was  really  inter- 
ested in  the  subject.  Unless  the  spirit  is  concentrated  in  the 
heart  of  the  teacher,  it  soon  evaporates. 

"The  child  ought  to  have  exactly  the  same  motives  for  right- 
doing,  and  be  judged  by  exactly  the  same  standard  in  the  school, 
as  the  adult  in  the  wider  social  life  to  which  he  belongs."206  He 
should  be  made  to  function  socially  in  order  to  function  socially 
when  a  man.  To  this  end,  the  teacher  should  study  her  pupils 
and  adjust  her  methods  so  that  education  becomes  a  prepara- 
tion for  the  experiences  and  obligations  which  the  child  will 
face  in  the  future.  The  truly  social  spirit  calls  for  the  practice 
of  humility  and  self-abnegation.  "The  teacher  should  use  the 
most  varying  incidents  to  lead  the  children  in  their  early  experi- 
ences to  a  really  social  solution  of  human  difficulties.  In  rival 
conflicts  between  children,  not  only  clear  justice  should  be 
made  known,  but  the  victor  should  be  persuaded  to  make  atone- 
ment to  the  one  defeated  for  the  conquest  that  he  has  won.  The 
moral  danger  of  a  successful  life  and  of  excelling  one's  less 
gifted  neighbor  and  the  habit  of  the  pupil's  thinking  himself 
in  the  other's  place  in  order  to  treat  him  accordingly,  should 
be  subjects  of  thorough  discussion  in  the  school."207 

808  Digest  of  State  Laws  Relating  to  Public  Education.  Washington,  1916, 
pp.  634-37. 

106  Dewey,  J.,  "Essays,"  op.  cit.,  p.  37. 

807  "Sollte  der  Erzieher  die  verschiedensten  Konflikte  benutzen,  die  Jugend 
fihon  auf  den  ersten  Stufen  zu  einer  wirklich  sozialen  Lb'sung  menschlichen 
Schwierigkeiten  anzuleiten.  Bei  Interessenkonflikten  zwischen  Kindern 
sollte  nicht  nur  das  klare  Recht  herausgestellt  werden,  sondern  der  Sieger 
auch  stets  angeregt  werden,  dem  Besiegten  eine  Entschadigung  fur  die  Nieder- 
lage  zu  schaffen.  Die  moralische  Gefahr  des  erfolgreichen  Lebens,  des  Uber- 
holens  von  schwacher  Begabten,  und  die  Kunst,  sich  in  deren  Seele  hineinzu- 
denken,  sie  dementsprechend  zu  behandeln,  sollte  in  der  Schule  grundlich 
•ur  Sprache  gebracht  werden."  Foerster,  F.  W.,  Staatsburgerliche  Erziehung. 
Berlin,  1»14,  p.  123. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  71 

Such  conditions  of  inequality  are  a  constant  factor  in  human 
life.  The  school  should  be  the  training  ground  to  teach  pupils 
the  "notion  of  fraternity  which  can  reconcile  the  two  conflict- 
ing necessities  of  inequality  and  of  solidarity/'208  and  to  exer- 
cise them  in  its  practice.  For  this  training  a  knowledge  of  the 
principles  of  psychology  is  an  important  part  of  the  teacher's 
equipment;  but  such  a  perfect  knowledge  of  human  nature  as 
Professor  Thorndike  says  would  enable  the  teacher  to  tell  the 
effect  of  every  stimulus  and  the  cause  of  every  response,  and, 
therefore,  the  result  upon  the  pupil  that  his  every  act  would 
effect,209  would  not  guarantee  success.  Such  training  requires 
on  the  part  of  the  teacher  an  appreciation  of  the  conditions 
which  come  from  an  insight  into  this  correlation  of  duty  and 
capacity,  and  consequently  of  inequality.210  It  requires  constant 
endeavor  to  develop  a  spirit  which  will  open  the  hearts  of  the 
pupils  to  the  great  spiritual  motive  of  unselfishness  and  service. 
It  requires  the  exemplification  of  this  virtue  in  the  teacher's 
own  conduct.  It  requires  such  a  personal  interest  in  each  pupil 
that  the  teacher  can  say  with  truth,  "But  I  most  gladly  will 
spend  and  be  spent  myself  for  your  souls."211  Dr.  Ladd  says,  "I 
regard  it  as  the  privilege  and  the  duty  of  the  teacher  to  make 
himself  the  efficient  and  faithful  servant  of  those  who  are  given 
him  to  teach,  but  this  attitude  must  never  be  assumed  to  com- 
promise his  dignity."212  The  teacher's  center  of  interest  has 
become  the  basic  principle  of  classification  of  professional 
teachers.  In  proportion  as  the  academic  subjects,  or  the  study 
of  the  pupils  themselves  are  central  in  their  teacher's  conscious- 
ness, is  she  an  amateur  or  a  professional  worker.  The  greatest 
asset  of  the  teacher  is  that  devotion  to  the  pupil  which  comes 
from  the  appreciation  of  the  value  of  each  personality,  a  devo- 
tion that  will  make  one  wish  to  "leave  the  ninety-nine  in  the 
desert,  and  go  after  that  which  was  lost,  until  he  find  it."213 

The  teacher  should  cultivate  a  high  esteem  for  her  work.  The 
ideal  form  of  her  activity  is  a  personal  intercourse  with  the 


208  Chatterton-Hill,  G.,  op.  cit.,  p.  107. 

*»  Cf.  Thorndike,  E.  L.,  The  Principles  of  Teaching,  op.  cit.,  p.  9. 

»10  Cf.  Chatterton-Hill,  G.,  op.  cit.,  p.  107. 

111  II.  Corinthians,  XII,  15. 

112  Op.  cit.,  p.  220. 
"»  Luke,  XV,  4. 


72  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

pupil.  Her  work  will  be  most  successful  who  holds  a  high 
estimate  of  the  personality  of  the  pupil  and  of  the  value  of 
personal  qualities.  She  should  possess  eminently  the  qualities 
which  she  wishes  to  reproduce  in  her  pupils.  Therefore,  to 
train  for  citizenship,  she  herself  should  know  the  joys  that 
come  from  personal  service  and  from  sinking  personal  ambitions 
for  the  greater  good  of  the  group.  That  the  ideal  may  have 
energizing  force,  and  not  lapse  into  a  merely  formal  intellec- 
tual notion,  there  must  be  a  constant  striving  to  bring  oneself 
into  conformity  with  it.  In  Plato's  Republic,  the  true  educators 
"when  engaged  upon  their  work  will  often  turn  their  eyes 
upwards  and  downwards;  I  mean  that  they  will  first  look  at 
absolute  justice  and  beauty  and  temperance,  and  again  at  the 
human  copy ;  and  will  mingle  and  temper  the  various  elements 
of  life  into  the  image  of  a  man;  and  this  they  will  conceive 
according  to  that  other  image  which,  when  existing  among 
men,  Homer  calls  the  form  and  likeness  of  God."214  For  ex- 
ample and  ideals  of  brotherly  love,  the  teacher  finds  her  model 
in  the  Perfect  Teacher,  Who  made  the  love  of  fellow-inan  the 
test  of  becoming  His  disciple :  /'By  this  shall  all  men  know  that 
you  are  My  disciples,  if  you  have  love  one  for  another."215  For 
example  and  inspiration  to  self-sacrifice  and  self-devotion, 
again  she  finds  her  model  in  Him  Who  made  sacrifice  and  serv- 
ice the  only  test  of  greatness :  "But  whosoever  will  be  greater 
shall  be  your  minister.  And  whosoever  will  be  first  among  you, 
shall  be  the  servant  of  all.  For  the  Son  of  man  also  is  not  come 
to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister."216 


214  Plato,  The  Republic  translated  by  Jowett.     New  York,  1901,  Book  VI, 
pp.  195-96. 

216  John  XIII,  35. 

216  Mark,  X,  43,  44,  45. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  STATE  TEACHER  TO  TRAIN  IN  WILLINGNESS 
FOR   DISINTERESTED    SERVICE 

That  the  teacher  must  possess  the  moral  qualities  which  she 
wishes  to  cultivate  in  the  child  is  a  principle  with  a  definite 
psychological  basis,  as  was  set  forth  in  the  preceding  chapter. 
Willingness  for  disinterested  service  is  an  eminent  requirement 
for  good  citizenship.  The  spirit  of  community  interest  and 
responsibility  and  the  consequent  sinking  of  personal  aims  and 
satisfactions  in  order  to  promote  the  general  good  should  be 
one  of  the  animating  principles,  and  at  the  same  time  one  of 
the  criteria,  of  the  true  citizen.  This  spiritual  quality,  like  all 
things  of  the  spirit,  is  enkindled  by  spirit.  Disinterestedness 
in  the  pupil  is  begotten  by  the  overflow  of  that  same  spirit  from 
the  heart  of  the  teacher  in  whom  it  has  become  a  life-principle 
of  conduct.  The  personality  of  the  teacher  is  the  active  condi- 
tioning force  stimulating  and  encouraging  the  child  to  those 
activities  which  will  fix  in  his  plastic,  potential  nature  the 
moral  qualities  of  unselfishness  and  helpfulness-to-others.  The 
educational  thought  of  the  last  two  centuries  has  deflected  the 
emphasis  from  the  influence  of  the  teacher  to  the  problems  of 
the  curriculum,  the  nature  of  the  child,  and  the  need  of  social 
adjustment  on  the  part  of  the  school.  "In  the.  emphasis  of 
child,  society,  and  course  of  study  the  teacher  has  been  for- 
gotten."217 "Few  teachers  have  any  real  appreciation  of  the^ 
manner  in  which  the  teacher's  personality  and  the  social  life  of 
the  school  affect  the  child's  education."218  While  conscious  of 
the  importance  of  conserving  each  of  the  elements  which  di- 
rectly condition  classroom  work,  and  especially  the  need  of 
proper  social  conditions,  we  maintain  that  the  personality  of 
the  teacher  is  the  vitally  controlling  factor.  "  The  important  fact 
is  that  the  teacher  occupies  the  key  position  of  the  educational 


217  Suzzallo,  H.,  "Editor's  Introduction,"  to  Teacher's  Philosophy  in  and 
Out  of  School,  Hyde,  W.  D.     Boston,  1910,  p.  XI. 

218  Suzzallo,  H.,   "Editor's  Introduction"  to    The  Status  of    The   Teacher, 
Perry,  A.  C.     Boston,  1912,  p.  IX. 

73 


74  Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness 

situation.    She  stands  constantly  on  the  frontier  of  childhood , 
she  deals  with  weak,  plastic,  and  variable  children."219 

Training  in  citizenship  in  some  form,  however  unsystematic 
it  may  have  been,  has  had  a  place  in  the  curriculum  for  more 
than  fifty  years220  with  unsatisfactory  results.  Among  the 
experts  of  civic  education  there  is  at  present  an  awakening  to 
the  need  of  adequately  trained  teachers  for  this  high  duty. 
"Civic  education  is  the  education  of  the  qualities  of  good  citi- 
zenship. What  teachers  need  is  not  so  much  a  more  intimate 
knowledge  of  governmental  activities,  as  a  new  attitude  and 
point  of  view.  The  technique  may  be  imparted  readily  enough, 
but  the  spirit  of  good  citizenship  can  be  taught  only  by  men  or 
women  who  are  themselves  markedly  proficient  in  the  knowl 
edge  of  civic  and  social  obligation."221  To  the  proficiency  of 
knowledge  of  civic  and  social  obligation,  as  a  vitally  necessary 
part  of  the  teacher's  equipment,  we  add  willingness  for  disin- 
terested service.  The  cultivation  of  that  quality  in  the  plastic 
nature  of  the  child  lies  at  the  heart  of  the  school's  task,  and 
"what  is  taught  is  learned  or  not,  according  as  these  virtues 
prevail  in  the  teacher's  life.  .  .  .  The  most  important  part 
in  the  moralizing  of  the  school  is  the  moralizing  of  the 
teacher."222 

The  logic  of  the  situation  forces  the  inquiry:  Where  may 
teachers  be  found  in  whom  willingness  for  disinterested  service 
is  a  life  principle?  By  the  operation  of  what  law  of  selection 
are  they  chosen?  By  what  system  are  they  trained?  By  what 
means  is  this  spiritual  quality  maintained  and  heightened  while 
the  teacher  is  in  service?  To  these  questions  we  now  address 
our  inquiry. 

There  are  two  systems  of  schools  in  the  United  States — the 
State  school  and  the  Catholic  school.  Each  of  these  systems 
has  its  own  means  of  preparing  teachers.  These  means  are  the 
State  system  of  normal  schools  and  the  Catholic  system  of  the 
religious  novitiate  with  its  normal  school.  Each  has  its  specific 
method  of  improving  its  teachers  while  in  service.  This  study 


819  Coffman,  L.   D.,    The  Social  Composition  of  the   Teaching  Population. 
New  York,  1911,  p.  1. 

820  Cf.  p.  37,  supra. 

M1  Ryan,  W.  C.,  "Introductory  Survey,"  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Educa- 
tion. 1913,  Vol.  I.,  p.  11. 
IM  Sneath  and  Hodges,  op.  cit.,  p.  201. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  75 

is  restricted  to  the  typical  means  at  the  disposal  of  each  of 
these  systems  by  virtue  of  the  fundamental  principle  underly- 
ing each  to  prepare  the  teacher  adequately  to  cultivate  in  the 
pupil  willingness  for  disinterested  service.  There  will  be  no 
attempt  to  inquire  into  the  factors  constituting  general  teach- 
ing efficiency.  Of  the  many  possible  factors,  ability  in  academic 
and  professional  studies  and  other  qualities  which  condition 
success  in  general,  but  one,  the  element  of  personality,  will  be 
considered,  and  that  only  as  far  as  it  is  essential  to  the  training 
in  citizenship  by  developing  the  spirit  of  patriotic  disinter- 
estedness. To  develop  the  quality  in  her  pupils,  the  teacher 
must  possess  it  herself.  The  inquiry  will  be  directed  to  three 
points,  the  captions  of  which  are : 

I.  The  motive  which  impels  the  candidate  of  each  system  to 
enter  the  teaching  service. 

II.  The  preparation  of  the  intending  teacher  to  cultivate  in 
her  pupils  the  willingness  for  disinterested  service. 

III.  The  means  furnished  by  each  system  to  maintain  and 
heighten  in  the  teacher  this  quality  of  mind  and  conduct  while 
in  service. 

In  view  of  this  analysis,  it  will  be  necessary  to  consider  the 
categories  of  employment  in  which  teaching  is  classed ;  namely, 
trade,  profession,  and  calling  or  vocation.  The  word  trade  is 
derived  from  tread.  The  original  meaning  of  the  word  was  to 
place  things  on  the  tread  or  track  in  order  to  pass  them  on. 
The  word  trade  connotes  bargaining  and  all  that  is  implied  in 
buying  and  selling.  Those  employments  are  trades,  therefore, 
in  which  there  is  a  direct  relation  between  the  work  and  the 
compensation  for  it.  The  tradesman  works  by  the  hour,  or  by 
the  piece  with  the  understanding  that  he  will  be  paid  in  pro- 
portion to  his  work.  The  cash  nexus  is  always  a  conscious 
relation  between  the  employer  and  the  employe. 

The  term  profession  implies  not  only  special  preparation,  but 
a  universal  recognition  of  the  power  and  dignity  which  training 
gives  the  professional  man,  and  which  is  maintained  by  a 
distinct  code  observed  by  each  member  of  the  profession  as  an 
obligation  to  his  colleagues.  There  are  certain  standards  which 
determine  professional  service.  The  essence  of  the  professional 
spirit  is  love  for  the  work  as  a  means  of  self-expression  and 


76  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

joy  in  the  doing  of  it  to  benefit  others.223  The  physician  devotes 
himself  unreservedly  to  his  patients  without  thought  of  gain. 
The  distinction  between  trade  and  profession  is  not  in  the 
character  of  the  work,  mental  or  manual,  although  the  intel- 
lectual equipment  is  usually  greater  in  the  professional  man, 
but  in  the  motive  behind  the  work.  A  trade  aims  primarily  at 
personal  gain,  a  profession  at  the  exercise  of  powers  beneficial 
to  mankind.224 

A  calling  or  vocation,  in  the  large  sense,  is  the  work  for 
which  each  man  was  created  and  endowed  physically,  intel- 
lectually, and  temperamentally  by  an  omnipotent,  omniscient 
Creator.  The  idea  of  personal  vocation  follows  from  man's 
faith  in  a  Personal  God  Whose  every  act  is  guided  by  infinite 
intelligence.  As  in  Plato's  Kepublic  perfect  justice  would  be 
attained  when  each  man  found  the  employment  for  which  he 
was  fitted  by  nature,  so,  according  to  the  Christian  philosophy 
of  life,  the  ideally  best  conditions  of  society  would  be  attained 
if  each  individual  were  fulfilling  the  Divine  plan  in  his  regard. 
In  a  restricted  sense,  a  vocation  is  a  spiritual  call  in  the  words 
of  the  Divine  Master:  "One  thing  is  wanting  unto  thee:  go, 
sell  whatsoever  thou  hast,  and  give  to  the  poor,  and  thou  shalt 
have  treasure  in  heaven;  and  come,  follow  Me,"225  which  lays 
upon  the  individual  the  obligation  to  devote  his  powers  and 
energies  to  form  high  virtue  in  himself  and  in  others,  as  many 
as  he  can  reach  by  his  influence.  The  call  to  such  a  life  is  the 
meaning  of  the  term,  religious  vocation. 

/.  The  Principle  of  Selection  of  Teachers  of  the  State  School 

At  the  outset  we  face  the  fundamental  question:  By  what 
motive  is  the  candidate  for  teaching  impelled?  What  has 
attracted  eack  of  the  great  body  of  five  hundred  eighty  thousand 
teachers226  to  enter  the  work?  Have  they  been  prompted  by  the 
spiritual  law  of  service  and  sacrifice,  or  by  the  economic  law  of 
salary,  a  law  essentially  self -seeking?  From  the  very  nature 


223  Cf.  Palmer,  G.  H.,  Trades  and  Professions.     Boston,  1914,  p.  33.     Suz- 
zallo,  H.,  "Reorganization  of  the  Teaching  Profession,"  National  Educational 
Association  Proceedings,  1913,  p.  362. 

224  Cf.  Palmer,  G.  H.,  Ideal  Teacher.     Boston,  1908,  pp.  4.  5.      Trades  and 
Professions.     Boston,  1914,  p.  27. 

226  Mark,  X,  21. 

226  Bureau  of  Education,  unpublished  statistics,  1914. 


Pedagogical   Value  oj   Willingness  77 

of  the  economic  conditions  which  the  public  school  teachers 
have  to  face  to  maintain  economic  independence,  the  salary 
must  be  a  conscious  motive.  They  are  not  the  philosopher 
kings  of  the  Republic,  who  were  not  permitted  to  own  gold  or 
silver,  that  they  might  be  free  from  the  tyranny  of  things  in 
order  to  devote  themselves  unreservedly  to  the  task  of  ruling 
wisely.  Dr.  Prichett  assumes  that  the  motive  of  the  state 
school  teacher  is  unquestionably  economic.  In  explaining  the 
table  of  statistics  of  salaries  of  professors  in  American  and 
Canadian  institutes  of  collegiate  rank,  he  says :  "The  table  is 
notably  defective  in  one  respect — it  omits  entirely  the  statistics 
for  Roman  Catholic  colleges  and  universities.  This  omission 
is  unavoidable,  however,  since  it  is  impossible  to  compare  the 
cost  of  living  in  institutions  where  teaching  is  an  economic 
function  with  that  in  an  institution  where  the  teachers  serve 
in  the  main  without  salary."227 

According  to  the  attitude  which  the  teacher  has  toward  her 
work,  she  belongs  to  the  trade  or  profession  of  teaching. 
Broadly  speaking,  there  are  three  classes  of  teachers : 

1.  Those  who  enter  from  economic  compulsion. 

2.  A  class  of  no  single  specific  characteristics,  consisting  of 
young  men  who  enter  the  work   temporarily   as   a  stepping 
stone  to  one  of  the  learned  professions,  and  young  women  who 
not  from  economic  compulsion,  but  for  the  sake  of  economic 
independence  try  teaching  to  see  how  they  like  it. 

3.  Those  who  choose  the  work  deliberately  and  equip  them- 
selves for  it.    Dr.  Coffman  says:     "In  most  cases  the  motive 
that  starts  teaching  is  economic  pressure.     The   professional 
motive   comes  late.     .     .     .     Professionalization   would   come 
much  sooner  if  more  could  be  induced  to  enter  teaching  because 
of  a  desire  to  confer  service."228   "The  transmission  of  our  best 
culture  is  turned  over  to  a  group  of  the  least  favored  and  cul- 
tured because  of  its  economic  station."229     This  is  a  severe 
arraignment  of  the  motive  which  urges  teachers  to  assume  the 
responsibility  of  nurturing  the  citizens  of  the  future.    There  is 


227  Prichett,  H.  S.,  "Christian  Denominations  and  Colleges,"  Educational 
Review,  Vol.  36,  p.  228. 

228  Op.  cit.,  p.  54. 

229  Ibid.,  p.  70. 


78  Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness 

no  thought  of  personal  fitness  to  prepare  the  child  for  his 
spiritual  inheritance,  no  glimpse  of  a  desire  to  assist  him  to 
actualize  his  possibilities  and  become  a  worthy  member  of 
society,  nor  of  the  motive  of  training  him  to  the  true  greatness 
of  disinterested  service.  Dr.  Hollister  says  that  those  who 
enter  the  service  of  teaching  should  be  volunteers,  but  that 
economic  compulsion  forces  many  into  the  work.230  Dr. 
Palmer  recognizes  the  existence  of  the  same  conditions :  "Many 
men  and  still  more  women,  take  up  teaching  for  a  brief  season, 
not  through  any  taste  or  fitness  for  it,  but  because  they  find  in 
it  the  readiest  means  of  support."231  That  the  number  of  those 
who  are  forced  by  economic  pressure  to  teach,  constitute  the 
majority  of  the  teaching  body  is  inferred  from  the  statement : 
"The  typical  American  female  teacher  early  found  the  pressure 
both  real  and  anticipated  to  earn  her  own  living  very  heavy. 
As  teaching  was  regarded  as  a  highly  respectable  calling,  and 
as  the  transfer  from  the  schoolroom  as  a  student  to  it  as  a 
teacher  was  but  a  step,  she  decided  upon  teaching."232  This 
class,  with  whom  the  financial  motive  is  so  markedly  in  the 
forefront  of  consciousness,  must  be  classed  as  trade  teachers. 

The  teachers  who  have  had  professional  training  constitute 
between  fifteen  and  twenty  per  cent  of  the  entire  teaching  force 
of  the  State  school.233  They  may  have  been  drawn  to  the  pro- 
fession by  its  intrinsic  attractions.  Motives  other  than  eco- 
nomic which  operate  favorably  or  adversely  to  influence  a 
young  man  or  woman  to  choose  the  profession  of  teaching  are : 
(1)  The  esteem  in  which  the  profession  is  held;  (2)  the  oppor- 
tunity which  teaching  offers  to  form  youth  to  virtue;  (3)  the 
opportunity  for  self-expression  or  lore  of  the  work. 

The  profession  of  teaching,  considered  purely  as  a  career  to 
attain  dignity  of  position  and  honor,  has  little  attraction. 
Neither  in  the  public  sentiment  nor  in  the  estimate  of  the  teach- 
ing body  is  its  status  equal  to  that  of  law  or  medicine.  In  Ger- 
many the  professional  spirit  is  strong,  and  invests  the  work  with 


230  Cf.  Hollister,  H.  A.,   The  Administration  of  Education  in  a  Democracy. 
Boston,  1914,  pp.  313-14. 

231  Palmer,  G.  H.,  Trades  and  Professions.     Boston,  1914,  p.  30. 

232  Coffman,  L.  D.,  op.  cit.,  p.  80. 

238  Cf.  Judd,  C.  H.,  "Normal   School  Extension-courses,"  National  Educa- 
tional Association  Proceedings,  1915,  p.  771.     Perry,  A.  C.,  op.  cit.,  p.  59. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  79 

dignity.  The  lehrer  has  a  definite  status  next  in  rank  to  the 
pfarrer.  In  Germany,  France,  and  other  European  countries 
the  teacher  is  an  officer  of  the  State,  enjoying  official  privilege 
and  popular  esteem.  In  Sweden  and  Austria  the  teacher  has 
an  official  grade;  a  high-school  principal  enjoys  the  same  rank 
as  a  major-general.234  In  the  United  States  the  teacher  has  no 
official  standing.  He  is  an  employe,  not  an  officer.  A  report  of 
an  English  visitor  to  our  school  contained  the  statement :  "It 
certainly  appears  to  the  casual  observer  visiting  the  States  that 
the  teacher,  as  such,  has  little  or  no  status;  that  is,  his  status 
is  that  of  the  man  apart  from  his  profession.  His  influence  is 
determined  by  his  personal  qualities,  and  not  by  his  profes- 
sion."235 Educators  who  have  made  a  careful  and  scholarly 
study  of  school  administration  give  the  following  estimate  of 
the  teacher's  status:  "The  traditional  American  teacher  has 
been,  in  one  sense,  a  sort  of  casual  laborer.  Along  with  this 
has  naturally  persisted  the  tendency  for  him  to  get  out  of  this 
uncertain  career  as  speedily  as  possible  and  to  return  to  it 
only  in  times  of  stress."236  The  small  esteem  and  lack  of 
dignity  attached  to  the  profession  may  be  attributed,  in  part, 
to  the  lack  of  security  and  permanence  of  tenure.  Dr.  Prichett 
says :  "Before  we  can  hope  for  the  best  results  in  education,  we 
must  make  a  career  for  an  ambitious  man  possible  in  the  public 
schools."237  This  is  the  rationale  of  his  pension  system  for 
teachers. 

The  determining  motive  of  the  teacher  may  be  that  of  social 
uplift  of  the  masses ;  of  making  the  ideal  gleam  along  the  pupil's 
pathway  in  order  to  lift  him  to  a  higher  plane  intellectually 
and  morally.  It  is  possible  to  conceive  a  corps  of  teachers 
actuated  by  this  high  motive,  but  the  very  nature  of  the  eco- 
nomic problem  which  the  public  school  teacher  has  to  face  is 
bound  to  make  the  question  of  salary  a  vital  consideration. 
"However  true  it  may  be  that  the  altruistic  motive  must  influ- 
ence the  man  who  chooses  the  life  of  teacher,  it  is  still  true  that 


»4  Cf .  Perry,  A.  C.,  op.  cit.,  p.  57. 

»"  Ibid.,  p.  58. 

>3S  Dutton,  S.  R.,  and  Snedden,  D.,  The  Administration  of  Public  Educa- 
tion in  the  United  Slates.  New  York,  1912,  p.  261. 

tlT  Seventh  Annua  Report,  Carnegie  Foundation  for  the  Advancement  of 
Ltarning,  1912,  p.  7<W 


80  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

one  cannot  consider  the  calling  of  the  teacher  apart  from  the 
economic  function.7'238 

The  motive  of  self-expression  and  joy  in  the  work  is  the 
motive  of  the  truly  professional  teacher.  It  includes  a  small 
number  of  choice  spirits  like  Dr.  Palmer  who  says:  "Har- 
vard College  pays  me  for  doing  what  I  would  gladly  pay  it  for 
allowing  me  to  do."239  To  most  professionally  trained  teachers., 
however,  the  adequacy  of  salary  is  a  significant  consideration. 
"It  is  well  to  say  that  competent  men  and  women  will  go  into 
the  occupation  of  teaching  regardless  of  the  money  involved, 
but  the  economic  demand  is  a  primal  one."240  Economic  condi- 
tions in  the  educational  world  cause  sharp  competition  among 
teachers.  "The  only  hope  of  an  ambitious  collegian  is  to  put 
himself  distinctly  above  his  competitors  in  his  chosen  field.  He 
must  do  as  the  business  man  does  in  analogous  circumstances — 
increase  his  capital  and  make  ready  for  a  larger  business.'7241 
This  indicates  a  trend  of  affairs  which  should  give  men  pause 
who  realize  that  the  teacher's  point  of  view  is  the  vital  point 
for  training  in  citizenship.  The  implications  of  the  principle 
underlying  the  system  are  far-reaching.  The  key  to  the  situa- 
tion is  this:  There  is  the  same  difficulty  of  harmonizing  the 
spirit  of  competition  which  flows  from  the  economic  principle 
with  the  altruistic  impulse  and  willingness  for  disinterested 
service  as  Huxley  found  in  reconciling  the  cosmic  process  with 
the  ethical  process:  "Social  progress  means  a  checking  of  the 
cosmic  process  and  the  substitution  for  it  of  another,  which 
may  be  called  the  ethical  process.  .  .  .  The  ethical  progress 
of  society  depends  not  on  imitating  the  cosmic  process,  still 
less  in  running  away  from  it,  but  in  combating  it."242  Yet  the 
hope  of  capturing  a  good  position  is  the  incentive  for  an 
intending  teacher  to  equip  herself  with  professional  training, 
and  ambition  is  the  stimulus  to  high  performance  of  the  daily 
task.  Where  the  teachers  will  not  prepare  themselves  for 


238  Prichett,  H.  S.,  "Christian  Denominations  and  Colleges,"  Educational 
Review,  Vol.  36,  p.  227. 

239  The  Ideal  Teacher.     Boston,  1908,  p.  5. 

240  Ryan,  W.  C.,  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1913,  p.  11. 

241  Russell,  J.  E.,  Organization  and  Administration  of  Teachers'  College,  Vol. 
I,  p.  42. 

242  Evolution  and  Ethics.     New  York,  1896,  pp.  81,  83. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  81 

greater  efficiency  without  hope  of  adequate  reward,  there  the 
spirit  of  sacrifice  is  wanting.  As  a  matter  of  sound  business 
policy,  the  administrative  authorities  apply  to  the  employ- 
ment of  teachers  the  business  principles  which  obtain  in  the 
commercial  world;  they  make  the  salaries  depend  upon  merit 
and  efficiency,  knowing  that  the  incentive  which  actuates  a 
teacher  to  high  performance  of  duty  is  the  assurance  that  pro- 
motion and  increase  of  salary  will  be  the  reward  of  increased 
efficiency;  and,  conversely,  that  loss  of  position  will  be  the 
outcome  of  incompetency.243 

The  financial  relation  between  the  teacher  and  the  pupil  is 
sometimes  of  conscious  importance,  as  is  shown  by  the  boy  of 
untrained  impulses  who  interprets  the  teacher's  obligations 
inhering  in  the  relationship  as  those  of  an  employe.  uMy 
father  pays  you  to  teach  me;  he  will  make  you  promote  me," 
is  his  threat  to  the  teacher.  The  pupil  is  quick  to  make  deduc- 
tions. The  teacher  who  works  for  a  salary  cannot  without 
explanation  establish  inductively  from  her  own  life  the  prin- 
ciple of  self-sacrifice.  Extrinsic  reasons  for  leaching,  such  as 
the  support  of  dependent  relatives,  may  be,  and  often  are,  of 
such  a  character  as  to  make  the  work  one  of  self-sacrifice.  An 
important  question  here  is,  does  the  motive  animate  the  teacher 
with  the  love  of  service?  "Self -surrender  will  not  be  made  until 
a  rational  conviction  is  created  that  in  some  way  the  interests 
of  self  and  the  public  good  are  in  accord  with  each  other.  It  is 
beyond  the  power  of  the  State  to  supply  this  conviction,  for  it 
can  give  no  assurance  that  he  that  loseth  his  life  in  self-sacrifice 
shall  find  it  again.  Apart  from  extra-mundane  motives,  it  is  not 
to  be  expected  that  duty  will  have  supremacy  over  selfishness, 
as  was  the  case  before  the  energies  of  the  personal  life  were 
aroused  by  industrialism.  The  State  system  not  only  fails  to 
give  a  rational  motive  for  sacrifice,  but  cannot  teach  sacrifice  by 
example  through  the  salaried  teacher."244  Yet  the  task  that 
lies  at  the  heart  of  the  school  is  to  give  the  growing  youth  a 
greater  readiness  each  to  give  his  best  to  the  common  good. 
Halfway  measures  will  not  overcome  the  desire  for  personal 


243  Cf.  Green,  C.  F.,  "The  Promotion  of  Teachers  on  the  Basis  of  Merit  and 
Efficiency,"  School  and  Society,  Vol.  I,  p.  706. 

244  Wainwright,  S.  H.,  "The  Contribution  to  Japan  through  Education," 
Board  of  Education,  M.  E.  Church,  S.,  1908,  p.  106. 


82  Pedagogical  Value  of   Willingness 

gain  and  the  craving  for  material  satisfactions.  Nothing  less 
than  the  cultivation  of  a  principle  which  emphasizes  the  spir- 
itual power  of  man  over  mere  impulse  and  desire,  raising  him 
to  a  higher  level  of  life,  will  show  him  the  joy  of  sacrifice.  If 
we  would  make  true  citizens,  we  must  teach  the  children  in 
the  schools  the  joy  that  comes  from  true  service.  A  man  is  not 
free  from  the  bonds  of  temptation  to  personal  aggrandizement 
until  he  has  felt  the  joy  of  self-devotion  and  self-surrender. 

//.  The  Preparation  of  the  Intending  Teacher 

The  teacher  requires  both  mental  equipment  and  moral  fit- 
ness. His  training  for  the  profession  should  include  factors, 
therefore,  chosen  deliberately  to  attain  both  of  these  require- 
ments. It  has  been  the  policy  of  American  State  education  to 
provide  for  the  academic  and  professional  training  only.  Yet 
ideals  and  habits  of  character  are  no  less  important  to  those 
who  are  to  mould  the  future  citizens.  "It  is  no  less  a  duty  to 
plan  and  strive  for  a  character  that  is  sound  and  noble  and 
worthy  of  imitation  by  our  pupils  than  to  observe  and  listen 
and  read  with  a  view  to  acquiring  knowledge  and  skill  in 
imparting  knowledge  to  others."245 

Various  types  of  institutions  have  been  founded  to  prepare 
teachers.  These  institutions  are:  (1)  City  training  schools; 
(2)  normal  training  high  schools;  (3)  State  normal  schools; 
(4)  private  normal  schools ;  (5)  teachers'  colleges;  (6)  schools 
of  education  in  connection  with  universities.  Of  these  agencies 
we  select  the  State  normal  school  as  the  typical  training  school 
for  the  State  teacher.  This  is  an  integral  part  of  the  State 
school  system,  supported  and  directed  intimately  by  the  State 
according  to  its  policy  of  training  teachers  for  its  own  instru- 
ment, the  State  school,  which  it  has  instituted  and  consistently 
supports  to  further  its  own  purposes. 

For  the  year  ending  June,  1914,  two  hundred  and  thirty-five 
public  normal  schools  in  the  United  States  reported  to  the 
Bureau  of  Education  in  Washington.  The  total  number  of 
students  in  the  regular  training  courses  of  teachers  in  these 
schools  was  eighty-nine  thousand  five  hundred  thirty-seven.  Of 


848  Ladd,  G.  T.,  op.  cit.,  p.  41. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  83 

these  two  hundred  thirty-five  normal  schools,  one  hundred 
seventy-seven  are  state  normals,  with  an  attendance  of  eighty- 
four  thousand  ninety-seven  students.246 

To  define  the  work  of  a  normal  school,  as  to  define  that  of 
any  institution,  it  is  important  to  know  its  own  conception  of 
its  purpose  and  to  look  at  its  development  historically  and 
functionally.  The  purpose  is  fairly  well  treated  in  a  Massachu- 
setts State  normal  school  catalogue :  "The  design  of  the  normal 
school  is  strictly  professional;  that  is,  to  prepare  in  the  best 
possible  manner  its  pupils  for  the  work  of  organizing,  govern- 
ing, and  teaching  in  the  public  schools  of  the  Commonwealth. 
To  this  end,  there  must  be  the  most  thorough  knowledge,  first, 
of  the  branches  of  learning  required  to  be  taught  in  the  schools ; 
second,  of  the  best  methods  of  teaching  these  branches;  and 
third,  of  right  mental  training."247 

The  American  normal  school  was  founded  at  Lexington, 
Massachusetts,  in  1839  to  train  teachers  to  teach  ;248  to  train  so 
that  teaching  power  might  be  developed  in  the  person  taught. 
Although  at  first  it  gave  little  more  than  instruction  in  the 
academic  subjects  that  the  teachers  needed  for  their  immediate 
work,  the  purpose  from  the  beginning  was  to  develop  in  the 
student-teachers  technical  and  professional  ideals.249  It  is, 
therefore,  strictly  a  technical  school.  With  but  few  exceptions, 
the  normal  schools  in  the  United  States  have  been  markedly 
Pestalozzian  in  character.250  There  have  been  two  distinct 
types  of  normal  schools :  first,  the  early  Massachusetts  Normal 
School,  in  which  emphasis  was  placed  upon  thoroughness  in  the 
common  branches;  second,  the  Oswego  (New  York)  State  Nor- 
mal School,  which  stressed  with  major  emphasis  the  methods 
and  practice  of  teaching.  The  first  type  gave  an  accurate 
analysis  of  subject  matter;  the  second,  an  orderly  and  logical 
arrangement  of  the  elements  of  knowledge  for  the  purpose  of 
presentation  to  secure  discipline  and  development  of  mental 


I4«  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1914,  Vol.  II,  p.  340. 

>4T  Catalogue  of  the  Worcester  State  Normal  School,  1916,  p.  7. 

»«  Cf.  Gordy,  J.  P..  Rise  of  the  Normal  School  Idea  in  the  United  Stattt. 
Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin  No.  8,  1891,  p.  47. 

»*•  Cf.  Ibid.,  p.  40. 

180  Cf.  Jones,  E.  E.,  "The  Relation  of  Normal  Schools  to  Departments  and 
Schools  of  Education  in  Colleges  and  Universities,"  School  Review  Monograph. 
No.  11.  Chicago,  1912,  p.  59. 


84  Pedagogical  Value  of   Willingness 

faculty.  This  type,  formed  specifically  upon  Pestalozzian  prin- 
ciples, has  given  more  attention  to  educational  theory  than  has 
the  Massachusetts  type.251  In  each  of  these  characteristic 
types,  importance  is  attached  to  the  reexamination  of  common 
school  studies  which  the  student-teacher  has  completed  during 
her  last  years  of  high  school.  Arithmetic  is  studied  in  the  light 
of  algebra  and  geometry;  grammar  is  reviewed  in  the  light  of 
rhetoric  and  foreign  languages.  To  study  the  elementary 
branches  thus  constructively  is  to  discover  their  interrelations 
and  processes  of  derivation  from  higher  sources.  This  con- 
structive study  gives  the  teacher  a  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  the 
subject  and  tends  to  make  her  observant  and  reflective  of 
methods.252 

The  efficiency  of  normal  school  training  to  develop  the  per- 
sonality of  the  teacher  is  conditioned  by  four  factors — first,  the 
entrance  requirements  of  the  candidates;  second,  the  curricu- 
lum; third,  the  faculty;  fourth,  the  student  life.  The  normal 
school  has  no  national  standardization,  and,  therefore,  there  is 
no  homogeneous  type.  Those  of  each  State  or  group  of  States 
have  their  own  peculiarities  and  have  adopted  different  stand- 
ards of  admission.  According  to  the  entrance  requirements 
for  a  Massachusetts  Normal  School,  the  student  must  have 
attained  the  age  of  seventeen  years  if  a  man,  and  sixteen,  if  a 
woman,  and  must  be  free  from  physical  defects,  and  present 
a  certificate  of  good  moral  character  and  evidence  of  grad- 
uation from  a  high  school  or  euqivalent  preparation.253  For 
entrance  to  a  Wisconsin  State  Normal  School,  the  regents 
require  good  health  and  completion  of  a  four-year  high  school 
course  or  four  years'  successful  experience  as  a  teacher,  with  a 
first-grade  certificate  for  not  less  than  one  year  or  satisfactory 
examination  in  a  great  number  of  specified  high  school 
studies.254 

The   curriculum   furnishes   the   knowledge    content   of    the 


251  Cf.  Ramsey,  C.  C.,  "Normal  Schools  in  the  United  States,"  Education 
Vol.  17,  p.  234. 

262  Cf.  Harris,  W.  T.,  "The  Future  of  the  Normal  School,"  Educational 
Review,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  5,  6. 

253  Catalogue  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  State  Normal  School,  1916,  pp.  7,  8. 

864  Cf.  Bulletin,  Milwaukee  State  Normal,  1916,  p.  19. 


Pedagogical  Value  of   Willingness  85 

teacher's  training.  The  committee  of  the  National  Educational 
Association  on  normal  schools  in  1899  recommended  the  follow- 
ing course  toward  which  normal  schools  should  aim : 

"1.  Man  in  himself,  embracing:  physiology,  psychology, 
ethics,  religion. 

"2.  Man  in  the  race,  embracing :  history,  anthropology,  litera- 
ture, general  psychology. 

U3.  Man  in  nature,  embracing:  physics,  chemistry,  biology, 
mathematics,  physiography,  astronomy. 

"4.  Man  in  society,  embracing:  sociology,  government,  home 
economics. 

"5.  Man  in  expression,  embracing:  language,  drawing,  con- 
struction, physical  culture,  music,  art. 

"6.  Man  in  school,  embracing:  philosophy  of  education, 
science  and  art  of  teaching,  history  of  education,  school 
economics."255 

The  actual  content  of  the  curriculum  differs  widely  from 
the  ideal.  While  the  courses  of  study  of  the  various  normals  in 
the  same  State  are  uniform,  outlined  as  they  are  by  State 
officials  or  by  the  joint  action  of  the  presidents  of  the  various 
schools,  those  of  the  normals  of  different  States  vary  widely. 
''The  normal  school  in  the  city  and  the  one  in  the  mining 
region  and  the  one  in  the  agricultural  region  will  all  differ 
much  in  their  curricula  and  in  their  creational  agencies  for 
instruction."256  The  United  States  commissioner  of  Educa- 
tion, in  his  report  of  1910,  states  that  the  leading  normal 
schools  offer  four-year  degree  courses  which  are  cultural  as 
well  as  professional,  parallel  to  regular  college  courses;  that 
they  provide  for  specialization  in  manual  arts,  domestic 
economy,  agriculture,  and  the  natural  sciences,257  In  ac- 
cordance with  this  new  normal  school  movement  to  offer  col- 
lege work,  many  normal  schools  in  the  Middle  West  have 
provided  curricula  of  four-year  college  courses,  justifying  their 
policy  on  the  ground  that  their  legitimate  function  is  to  train 
teachers  for  every  phase  of  the  common  school,  and  that  the 


255  "Function   of   the   Normal    School,"    National   Educational   Association 
Proceedings,  1899,  p.  841. 

256  Kirk,  J.  R.,   "The  Twentieth- Century  Normal  School,"  National  Educa- 
tional Association  Proceedings,  1914,  p.  526. 

257  Cf.  Report.  Vol.  II,  p.  1079. 


86  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

training  of  a  high  school  teacher  demands  the  scholarship  of  a 
college  curriculum.  In  1907  the  normal  schools  of  Illinois  were 
authorized  to  grant  professional  degrees.258  In  1909  the  Iowa 
legislature  changed  the  name  of  the  State  Normal  School  at 
Cedar  Falls  to  the  State  Teachers'  College,  with  power  to  con- 
fer degrees.  Since  then  a  full  college  course  of  four  years  has 
been  maintained.259  In  1911  the  Wisconsin  legislature  empow- 
ered the  normal  schools  of  its  State  to  offer  the  ''substantial 
equivalent  of  the  instruction  given  in  the  first  two  years  of  a 
college  course,"  thereby  making  them  junior  colleges.260  In  a 
great  many  state  normal  schools,  however,  the  curriculum  con- 
sists of  a  two-year  course  following  a  high  school  education. 
In  order  to  give  specific  and  definite  training  to  teachers  of 
each  of  the  departments  of  elementary  education,  primary, 
intermediate,  and  grammar  grades,  the  last  product  in  the 
evolution  of  the  normal  school  is  a  group  or  core  of  subjects 
as  the  foundation  of  the  teacher's  professional  preparation. 
Supplementary  to  this  are  differential  groups  for  the  primary, 
intermediate,  and  grammar  grades,  and  in  those  normal  schools 
equipped  for  the  training  of  high  school  teachers  there  is  a  high 
school  differential.  The  total  number  of  units  required  is 
twenty -four;  one  unit  represents  twelve  weeks  of  study,  five 
hours  per  week.  In  the  Billingsham  Normal  School,  Wash- 
ington, representing  the  Pacific  Coast  section,  the  core  includes 
fifteen  and  seventy-five  hundredths  units;  the  high  grade  dif- 
ferential and  the  low  grade  differential  each  eight  and  twenty- 
five  hundredths  units.  In  the  Cedar  Falls  Teachers'  College, 
Iowa,  the  core  includes  ten  units ;  the  high  grade  and  the  low 
grade  differentials  each  fourteen  units.  In  the  Normal  School 
of  Ypsilanti,  Michigan,  the  core  includes  eight  units ;  the  high 
grade  and  the  low  grade  differentials  each,  sixteen  units.  Two 
subjects  only,  psychology  and  history  of  education,  are  con 
stants  of  the  core  of  studies  required  in  each  of  these  normal 
schools.  Each  of  these  two  subjects  varies  from  a  standard 


IM  Felmley,  D.,  "The  New  Normal  School  Movement,"  Educational  Re- 
new, Vol.  XLV,  p.  411. 

»M  Cf.  Bolton.  F.  E.,  "The  New  Normal  School  Movement,"  Educational 
Renew,  Vol.  XLVI,  p.  60. 

«°  Cf.  Plantz,  S.,  "The  New  Normal  School  Movement,"  Educational 
Renew,  Vol.  XLV,  p.  199. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  87 

amount  by  only  two-tenths  of  a  unit.  The  cores  vary  among 
themselves  from  eight  units  to  sixteen  units.261  The  differential 
course  is  recommended  to  make  the  normal  school  graduate 
more  immediately  effective  in  her  work  in  giving  her  specific 
plans  and  habits  of  procedure  for  the  grades  that  she  has  chosen 
to  teach.  Psychology  is  a  basic  study  for  principles  and 
methods,  and,  next  to  practice  teaching,  contributes  to  success 
in  teaching.262 

In  the  construction  of  the  curriculum,  academic  training  is 
sacrificed  in  some  degree  to  special  grade  methods  and  prob- 
lems. "The  fact  is  that  most  normal  schools  are,  under  present 
conditions,  forced  to  restrict  their  efforts  mainly  to  imparting 
knowledge  of  the  subjects  to  be  taught  and  the  methods  of 
teaching."263  If  the  curriculum  be  a  criterion  of  the  character 
of  the  content  of  instruction,  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  same 
conditions  obtain  at  the  present  time.  It  looks  at  the  work  of 
teaching  purely  from  the  viewpoint  of  the  intellect.  The  char- 
acter of  the  training  of  the  normal  school  is  determined  by  the 
required  qualifications  of  the  teachers  of  each  State.  Academic 
and  professional  preparation  only  have  been  demanded  for 
preliminary  certification.*  Yet  Dr.  Russell  maintains  that  an 
acquaintance  with  the  process  of  the  formation  of  ideals,  the 
development  of  will,  and  the  growth  of  character  should  be  a 
part  of  the  teacher's  equipment.264  The  curriculum  concerns 
itself  but  slightly  with  these  essentials  of  efficiency  in  teaching. 
Regarding  the  present  status  of  moral  education  in  institutions 
for  the  training  of  teachers,  Dr.  Bagley  says : 

"1.  Explicit  instruction  in  the  principles  of  moral  education 
is  provided  for  by  separate  courses  in  relatively  few  universi- 
ties and  normal  schools.  Such  courses  are  found  much  less 
frequently  in  normal  schools  than  in  colleges  and  universities. 

"2.  Courses  in  ethics  are  offered  in  seventy  per  cent  of  the 


281  Cf.  Maxwell,  G.  E.,    "Differentiation  of  Courses  in  Normal  Schools/' 
National  Educational  Association  Proceedings,  1913,  pp.  536-539. 

262  Cf.  Meriam,  J.  L.,  Normal  School  Education  and  Efficiency  in  Teaching. 
New  York,  1905,  p.  53. 

263  Russell,  J.  E.,    "The  Training  of  Teachers,"   Teachers'  College  Record, 
Vol.  I,  p.  8. 

*Cf.  Updegraff,  H.,  Teachers'  Certificates  Issued  under   General  State  Law* 
and  Regulations:  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  1910.     Passim. 
2«  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  48. 


88  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

colleges  and  universities  and  in  twenty-two  per  cent  of  the 
normal  schools.  In  neither  type  of  institution  are  the  courses 
in  ethics  frequently  required  of  intending  teachers. 

"3.  Instruction  in  the  principles  and  methods  of  moral  edu- 
cation seems  to  be  chiefly  provided  for  by  the  courses  in  the 
history  and  theory  of  education  and  in  school  management. 
Although  more  than  a  majority  of  the  instructors  in  these 
institutions  believe  that  in  the  lower  schools  indirect  moral 
instruction  through  literature,  history,  and  science  has  a  very 
important  place,  there  seems  to  be  little  explicit  effort  to 
emphasize  in  presenting  these  subjects  to  intending  teachers 
the  methods  through  which  their  moral  values  may  be  realized. 
It  is  to  be  inferred  that  this  is  done  mainly  in  the  instruction 
which  is  provided  in  the  history  of  education  and  the  theory  of 
education,  and  possibly  also  in  connection  with  observation  and 
practice  teaching. 

"4.  A  majority  of  those  engaged  in  the  teaching  of  teachers 
for  the  elementary  and  secondary  schools  place  the  greatest 
emphasis  upon  school  life  as  a  source  of  moral  education, 
although  indirect  but  systematic  instruction  through  literature, 
history,  and  science  is  also  deemed  to  be  of  very  great  impor 
tance.  A  strong  minority  favors  explicit  instruction  through 
principle  and  precept,  illustrated  by  concrete  cases.  The  pre- 
vailing opinion  is  that  religious  instruction  in  any  form  has 
no  place  in  the  elementary  and  secondary  schools. 

"5.  There  is  noticeable  among  many  of  those  engaged  in  the 
training  of  teachers  a  feeling  that  the  problems  of  moral  edu- 
cation are  particularly  intangible  and  elusive,  and  that  a  con- 
certed effort  to  entangle  at  least  some  of  the  strands  in  this 
web  is  essential  to  the  next  step  in  educational  progress."265 

The  fact  that  the  normal  school  curriculum,  shaped  by  state 
authorities  to  prepare  teachers  to  train  the  youth  of  our  country 
for  conscientious  and  devoted  citizenship,  contains  no  subject 
emphasizing  moral  training  is  significant.  "The  subject  [of 
moral  education]  calls  for  special  training  and  a  special  gift  on 
the  part  of  the  teacher.  It  is  the  height  of  absurdity  to  sup- 
pose that  geography  or  history  needs  special  preparation  and 

265  Bagley,  W.  C.,  "Training  Public  School  Teachers,"  Religious  Education, 
1911,  Vol.  V,  pp.  633-34. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  89 

that  morals  do  not."266  Ethical  instruction,  unless  exemplified 
in  daily  conduct,  is  futile.  The  foundation  of  character  is  to 
be  laid  not  by  enlightening  the  intellect  so  much  as  by  training 
the  emotions  and  the  will ;  yet  to  give  moral  education  a  place 
in  the  curriculum  would  be  a  recognition  of  the  importance  of 
the  moral  concept  and  of  the  value  of  the  inspiring  example  of 
virtue,  which  would  tend  to  preserve  a  true  sense  of  value  and 
would  demonstrate  concretely  that  the  development  of  the 
moral  character  of  the  pupils  is  a  part  of  the  work  of  every 
teacher. 

The  education  of  the  normal  school  is  purely  secular.  One  of 
the  primal  sources  of  the  inspirational  aspect  of  education  is 
the  school  studies,  especially  history,  social  science,  literature, 
and  art.  The  convictions  that  are  formed  and  the  ideals  that 
are  awakened  and  cultivated  are  not  vitalized  by  religion. 
How  far  the  ideal  elements  of  humanity  possess  the  teacher, 
enabling  her  to  see  in  all  the  subjects  that  she  teaches  man's 
effort  toward  ideal  living,  and  how  vital  she  will  make  this 
teaching,  depends  upon  how  far  she  realizes  the  seriousness  of 
her  task  and  upon  her  own  ethical  and  spiritual  vitality.  At 
best,  these  ideals  are  only  moral  ideals.  "Amid  all  the  sickly 
talk  about  'ideals'  which  has  become  the  commonplace  of  our 
age,  it  is  well  to  remember  that  so  long  as  they  are  dreams  of 
future  possibility  and  not  faiths  in  present  realities,  so  long  as 
they  are  a  mere  self-painting  of  the  yearning  spirit  and  not  its 
personal  surrender  to  immediate  communion  with  an  Infinite 
Perfection,  they  have  no  more  solidity  and  steadiness  than 
floating  air-bubbles,  gay  in  the  sunshine  and  broken  by  the 
passing  wind."267  Nothing  can  equal  religion  to  give  vigor  to 
ideals.  That  the  modern  world  expects  so  much  from  mere 
intellectual  instruction  is  the  logical  result  of  the  rationalistic 
philosophy.  When  any  evil  threatens  society,  the  remedy  pro- 
posed is  the  addition  of  a  new  study,  a  further  enrichment  of 
the  curriculum.  When  any  virtue  is  to  be  cultivated,  as  patri- 
otism or  community  service,  it  is  introduced  as  a  subject  of 
instruction  in  the  schools.  Yet  educators  know  that  conduct 


266  Chubb,  P.,  "Direct  Moral  Education,"  Religious   Education  Association, 
Vol.  VI,  p.  109. 

267  Martineau,  James,  A  Study  of  Religion.     New  York,  1888,  p.  12. 


90  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

and  character  are  attained  under  discipline  which  is  effective 
only  amid  conditions  where  appropriate  feeling  and  guidance 
of  the  will  are  present.  With  religion  excluded,  the  normal 
school  lacks  the  most  potent  influence  to  nourish  that  high 
idealism  and  altruism  which  spring  up  in  the  heart  of  every 
young  person  and  which  are  a  great  force  of  spiritual  energy. 

The  great  inspirational  force  of  education  is  the  teacher.  All 
that  has  been  said  in  Chapter  IV  on  the  potency  of  the  person- 
ality of  the  teacher  as  a  moulding  influence  of  character  has 
application  here,  but  with  a  lesser  force,  as  the  plasticity  of 
the  student  is  less.  As  with  the  child,  however,  so  with  the 
normal  school  student,  character  is  developed  in  contact  with  a 
live  spiritual  soul.  The  committee  of  the  Keport  of  Normal 
Schools  in  1899  stressed  with  major  emphasis  the  importance  of 
having  great  teachers,  recognizing  that  the  faculty  is  the  soul 
of  the  institution.  The  requisite  characteristics  were  named  in 
the  following  order:  first,  character;  second,  teaching  ability, 
defined  as  the  ability  to  inspire  to  thought,  feeling,  and  action, 
the  kind  of  work  which  makes  for  character;  third,  scholar- 
ship; fourth,  culture;  fifth,  a  professional  spirit  and  profes- 
sional ethics — a  spirit  of  loyalty  to  the  institution  to  make  it  a 
potent  force  for  good.268 

It  is  impossible  to  make  even  a  general  statement  of  how  far 
the  actual  qualifications  of  the  large  staff  of  normal  school 
teachers  correspond  to  this  ideal.  That  the  moral  character  of 
the  normal  school  instructor  is  unimpeachable  is  presupposed. 
How  active  his  appreciation  is  of  the  value  of  a  deep,  warm 
moral  sentiment,  and  how  intimate  his  conviction  that  self- 
realization  means  self-transcendence  and  the  habitual  willing- 
ness for  self-renunciation  and  self-sacrifice,  cannot  be  stated. 
In  a  teacher  these  are  qualities  absolutely  essential,  for  which 
there  is  no  quantitative  measurement.  That  the  normal  school 
instructor  has  taken  over  and  made  organic  the  habit  of 
subordinating  his  personal  gain  to  the  common  good,  forgetting 
his  own  narrow  interests  in  his  devotion  to  the  larger  ends, 
could  scarcely  be  expected  from  the  economic  motive  which 
impelled  him  to  enter  the  profession  and  from  the  ambitious 

868  Cf.  "Function  of  Normal  School,"  National  Educational  Association 
Proceedings,  1899,  p.  838. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  91 

impulse  which  urges  him  to  reach  out  to  capture  the  highest 
salary.  "As  things  are  now,  there  is  severe  competition  for 
every  desirable  post.  .  .  .  The  fact  that  the  competition 
for  the  better  class  of  schools  is  so  disagreeably  keen  is  the 
surest  guarantee  of  a  better  system  of  training  teachers.  .  .  . 
It  is  precisely  this  condition  of  affairs  which  makes  possible  for 
the  first  time  in  America  a  serious  consideration  of  ideal 
methods  of  training  leaders."269  Yet  the  teacher  who  is  form- 
ing those  who  are  to  inspire  high  ideals  of  citizenship  in  that 
training  ground  of  our  nation,  the  State  school,  whose  only 
reason  for  existence  is  to  teach  the  youth  to  be  patriotic  citi- 
zens, certainly  should  realize  in  her  own  character  and  express 
in  her  own  professional  work  her  appreciation  of  the  value  of 
the  fine  quality  of  disinterestedness.  If  the  teacher  must  have 
what  Dr.  Palmer  calls  the  "aptitude  of  vicariousness,"270  or  the 
capacity  of  reproducing  her  qualities  in  her  pupils,  we  are 
warranted  in  expecting  to  find  her  a  living  exemplar  of  that 
essential  mark  of  citizenship,  willingness  for  disinterested  ser- 
vice, and,  therefore,  showing  forth  in  her  own  conduct  that 
community  interests  are  greater  than  individual  ambitions. 
Immeasurably  more  effective  than  special  knowledge  or  rational 
moral  teaching  is  the  example  of  the  teacher  making  personal 
sacrifices  for  the  community.  Dr.  Bagley  sounds  a  true  note 
in  the  words:  "If  I  were  dictator  with  absolute  power,  the 
very  first  thing  that  I  would  do  would  be  to  make  normal- 
school  teaching  the  most  attractive  kind  of  teaching.  I  would 
have  it  so  attractive  that  the  very  best  men  and  women  would 
seek  its  service.  .  .  .  The  institutions  that  train  the  teach- 
ers for  the  elementary  schools  should  be  the  most  significant 
factor  in  their  efficiency."271  The  weak  point  in  the  situation  is 
the  weak  point  inherent  in  the  State  school  system;  the  eco- 
nomic pressure  which  is  in  the  forefront  of  consciousness  is  well 
calculated  to  obscure  and  to  dull  the  high  motive  of  service 
and  self-surrender. 

The  daily  life  of  the  student  in  the  normal  school  is  a  vital 


»«»  Russell.  J.  E..  op.  cit.,  p.  42. 
»70  Ideal  Teacher.     Boston,  1908,  p.  8. 

m  Bagley,  W.  C.,  "The   Question  of  Federal  Aid  for  Normal  Schools," 
National  Educational  Association  Proceedings,  1915,  p.  768. 


92  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

factor  in  the  preparation  of  the  intending  teacher  to  cultivate 
willingness  for  disinterested  service  in  pupils.  This  phase  of 
teacher  training  may  be  considered  under  two  aspects : 

1.  The  motivation  of  the  students  to  professional  training 
and  their  moral  earnestness. 

2.  The  extra-curricular  activities. 

1.  The  Motivation 

During  the  year  ending  June,  1914,  84,097  students  attended 
the  State  Normal  Schools,  of  these  three-fourths  were  women.272 
The  median  age  of  the  normal  school  students  in  nineteen  years  ; 
eighty-five  per  cent  are  between  seventeen  and  twenty-one,273 
the  period  when  personality  begins  to  crystallize  into  permanent 
form ;  when  habits  of  truthfulness,  purity,  loyalty,  self-reliance, 
and  self-devotion  should  become  rooted  in  character.  Until  the 
last  decade  when  some  of  the  normal  schools  began  to  offer 
college  courses  parallel  with  the  professional  curriculum,  the 
standard  of  values  of  the  normal  school  was  sharply  distinctive 
and  operated  as  a  selective  agency,  determining  the  quality  of 
its  students.  It  was  strictly  a  technical  school  and  attracted 
only  those  who  wished  to  qualify  for  teaching.  The  character 
of  the  student  body  was,  therefore,  dominated  by  the  single 
purpose  of  acquiring  professional  training  and  such  academic 
training  as  would  contribute  to  teaching  efficiency.  If  the  in- 
tending teachers  had  the  high  motive  of  using  their  energies 
in  the  upbuilding  of  the  characters  of  the  youth  of  the  land,  they 
were  students  of  high  seriousness  and  of  altruistic  spirit.  What- 
ever diverse  antecedents  and  differences  in  personal  ability 
there  might  be,  it  would  be  reasonable  to  expect  them  to  have 
fine  moral  qualities.  No  such  controlling  aim  has  been  found, 
but,  instead,  the  motive  of  economic  pressure.  "Since  teachers 
are  made  because  of  economic  problems  and  motives,  and  not 
because  of  deliberate  selection  and  professional  zeal,  the  rising 
and  falling  fortunes  of  the  individual  student  come  to  have  a 
large  controlling  determination  of  the  entrance  upon  and  con- 
tinuance of  teaching."274  Teaching  is  not  looked  upon  as  a 


272  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1914,  p.  349. 

273  Cf.  Coffman,  op.  cit.,  p.  18. 

274  Buchner,  E.  F.,  "Graduate   and  Undergraduate  Work  in  Education," 
The  School  Review  Monograph,  No.  11.     Chicago,  1912,  p.  4. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  93 

career,  but  a  make-shift  or  stepping-stone  to  a  better  position. 

Doctor   Coffman's  conclusions  derived  from   his   study  of  a 
careful  census  of  five  thousand  two  hundred  fifteen  teachers, 

ua  random  sampling"  from  rural,  town,  and  city  schools,  may 
be  considered  fairly  typical  of  the  American  teacher.  He  has 
shown  statistically  the  inexperience  and  shifting  character  of 
the  State  school.  Fifty-six  per  cent  are  twenty-five  years  of  age 
or  under;275  the  average  teaching  career  of  men  teachers  is  seven 
years;  of  women,  four  years.276  In  1914  there  were  five  hun- 
dred eighty  thousand  fifty-eight  'teachers  in  the  elementary  and 
secondary  State  schools.  Of  this  number,  80.2  per  cent,  or  four- 
hundred  sixty-four  thousand  forty-four,  were  women.277  From 
these  data,  it  may  be  inferred  that  50  per  cent  have  not  had 
more  than  four  years'  experience;  that  there  are  more  than 
one  hundred  thirty  thousand  new  recruits  every  year,  and, 
therefore,  'at  the  beginning  of  the  school  year  nearly  25  per 
cent  of  the  teachers  have  had  only  one  year's  experience  and 
an  equal  number  have  had  no  experience.  Fifty  per  cent 
have  had  only  a  high  school  education  or  less.278  "The  median 
American  teacher,  irrespective  of  location  and  position,  has 
had  less  than  four  years  of  experience.  .  .  .  The  world 
estimates  that  the  maximum  effect  of  experience  has  usually 
been  attained  in  six  years.  .  .  .  The  possibility  of  lifting 
the  great  body  of  workers  in  teaching  to  the  plane  of  a  true 
profession  is  thus  restricted  by  the  fact  that  more  than  fifty 
per  cent  leave  teaching  before  they  realize  the  cumulative  effect 
of  experience  in  teaching  efficiency."  279  The  greater  proportion 
come  from  families  whose  average  income  is  less  than  eight 
hundred  dollars  a  year.280  It  may  be  inferred  that  many  have 
gone  into  the  work  from  necessity  rather  than  from  choice.  The 
seriousness  of  purpose  of  those  of  low  economic  status  is  not 
questioned,  but  that  the  purpose  is  instinct  with  self-sacrifice 
may  be  questioned.  More  often  than  otherwise,  the  motive  in 
entering  upon  teaching  is  to  use  it  as  a  temporary  means  of 

275  Cf.  op.  cit.,  p.  25. 

276  Cf.  ibid.,  pp.  25,  26. 

277  Cf.  Bureau  of  Education  unpublished  statistics,  1914. 

278  Cf.  Coffman,  op.  cit.,  p.  32. 

279  Coffman,  L.  D.,  "Mobility  of  the  Teaching  Population  in  Relation  to 
the  Economy  of  Time,"  National   Education  Association,  1913,  pp.  235-236. 

2«)  Cf.  ibid.,  pp.  61,  65. 


94  Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness 

earning  a  livelihood.  Men  leave  the  work  to  study  law  or  medi- 
cine, to  become  insurance  agents,  or  to  enter  government  serv- 
ice; the  women,  to  marry,  to  become  trained  nurses,  stenog- 
raphers or  book-keepers.  Doctor  Snedden  says  that  75  per  cent 
of  our  teachers,  if  not  more,  are  young  people  who  spend  but  a 
few  years  in  the  service  and  then  seek  other  occupations,  in- 
cluding those  of  horne-m»aking  for  women.281  The  fact  that  a 
candidate  for  teaching  presents  herself  at  the  normal  school  for 
training  is  no  guarantee  that  she  has  made  a  choice  of  the  pro- 
fession, nor  can  such  an  inference  be  made. 

With  the  extension  of  the  new  normal  school  movement  to 
transform  normal  schools  into  teachers'  colleges  and  into  junior 
colleges,  the  character  of  the  student  body  has  somewhat 
changed.  While  the  normal  school  still  stands  primarily  for 
professional  training,  the  purpose  of  the  student  has  become 
obscured  and  indefinite.  Some  enter  to  take  the  college  course 
with  no  intention  of  preparing  to  teach,  but  to  acquire  personal 
culture,  or  for  some  economic  purpose  other  than  teaching. 
This  is  especially  true  of  those  normal  schools  which  offer  the 
junior  college  course,  as  the  eight  State  normal  schools  of  Wis- 
consin. With  such  reconstruction  of  curriculum,  there  is  small 
basis  for  the  inference  that  the  student  of  such  a  normal  school 
has  a  distinct  professional  aim. 

2.  The  Extra-curricular  Activities. 

The  normal  school  encourages  student  organizations,  as  ath- 
letics, debating,  literary,  and  oratorical  clubs,  glee  clubs, 
camera  clubs,  and  others.  Its  general  attitude  toward  this 
phase  of  school  life  is  stated  in  the  following :  "Every  student 
should  affiliate  himself  with  at  least  one  organization ;  he  should 
be  able  to  feel  that  he  'belongs'  not  only  to  the  school,  but  to 
some  of  its  more  intimately  organized  life  where  he  comes 
closely  in  touch  with  at  least  some  of  his  schoolmates."282  The 
student  organizations  are  the  socializing  factor  of  the  school  to 
develop  the  sense  of  responsibility  and  cooperation.  One  of 
the  most  important  outside  activities  of  student  life  is  athletics, 


181  Cf.  Snedden,  D.,  "Tests  of  Teaching  Efficiency,"  Educational  Review, 
Vol.  XLV,  p.  515. 

"«  The  Milwaukee  State  Normal  Bulletin,  1916,  p.  13. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  95 

which  is  frequently  raised  to  undue  prominence.  That  its 
highest  moral  value  as  a  student  influence  may  be  realized,  it 
should  be  conducted  in  the  amateur  spirit.  At  some  of  the 
normal  schools,  well-paid  coaches  have  been  engaged  in  addition 
to  the  physical  director,  and  all  the  forms  of  college  athletics 
have  been  organized.283  The  ideals  of  a  professional  coach  to 
whom  success  is  sometimes  the  primary  aim,  and  the  method 
of  attaining  it,  secondary,  are  not  the  ideals  that  should  domi- 
nate normal  school  athletics. 

The  other  normal  school  organizations  are  of  a  social  or  quasi- 
intellectual  character.  Some  of  these  have  an  important  func- 
tion as  a  unifying  force,  binding  the  young  people  in  student 
fellowship  and  engendering  a  community  spirit.  Under  the 
direction  of  a  member  of  the  faculty,  a  limited  number  of  such 
societies  should  be  effective  in  creating  a  wholesome  social 
spirit.  There  is  good  reason  to  fear,  however,  that  the  great 
variety  of  unsupervised  student  activities  which  exists  becomes 
a  real  menace  to  student  life  in  causing  a  dissipation  of  ener- 
gies and  leading  to  a  lack  of  studiousness.  "With  the  freedom 
of  their  fraternity  or  club  life  and  the  absence  of  faculty  and 
parental  restraint,  have  come  constant  distractions  from  study 
in  connection  with  a  succession,  throughout  the  year,  of  class, 
fraternity  and  intercollegiate  games  of  football,  baseball,  basket 
ball,  tennis,  golf,  chess;  of  rowing,  track  and  athletic  meets; 
of  glee,  mandolin,  banjo  and  other  musical  or  dramatic  clubs 
or  associations;  of  receptions  and  other  social  functions;  of 
literary  dailies,  weeklies,  monthlies  and  annuals;  and  even  of 
intercollegiate  debates."  284  The  grounds  of  fear  for  normal 
school  extra-curricular  activities  become  more  serious  as  the 
normal  school  takes  over  the  college  curriculum.  These  condi- 
tions are  the  concomitant,  incident  to  the  expansion  of  the 
curriculum  and  sometimes  take  a  hedonistic  tendency  which, 
not  to  count  its  permanent  effect  upon  character,  is  detrimental 
to  good  work  in  the  school.285  In  so  far  as  a  student  is  guided 

181  Cf.  Plantz,  S.,  "The  New  Normal  School  Movement,"  Educational 
Review,  Vol.  XLV,  p.  200. 

284  Birdseye,  C.  F.,  Individual  Training  in  Our  Colleges.  New  York,  1907, 
p.  181.  Cf.  Clark,  C.  IL,  "What  Are  the  Colleges  For?"  North  American 
Review,  Vol.  CCIV,  p.  418. 

18S  Cf.  Black,  W.  H.,  "The  New  Normal  School  Movement,"  Educational 
Review,  Vol.  XLV,  p.  305. 


96  Pedagogical  Value  of   Willingness 

by  utilitarian  motives,  he  is  immune  to  the  danger,  and  many 
normal  school  students  are  of  this  type.  A  great  many,  how- 
ever, are  young  and  away  from  home  restraints  for  the  first 
time.  Their  characters  have  not  yet  taken  set,  and  they  are 
over-sensitive  to  the  call  of  companionship;  their  minds  be- 
come filled  with  a  multitude  of  transient  impressions  which 
waste  their  time  and  energy.  The  function  of  these  organiza- 
tions is  to  satisfy  the  instinct  for  human  relationship  and 
thereby  develop  the  fraternal  and  community  spirit.  These, 
however,  are  only  the  means.  The  vivifying  principle  is  want- 
ing. With  the  exclusion  of  religion  from  the  normal  school  as 
a  State  school,  the  source  of  the  highest  motives  and  loftiest 
ideals  for  conduct,  and  of  influence  for  right  human  relation- 
ships, is  excluded.  "It  is  the  religious  factors  which  constitute 
the  most  important  of  all  aids  to  moral  development  whether 
found  within  or  without  the  sphere  of  morality  itself."  2S6  The 
most  powerful  influence  to  convert  the  potential  power  of  will 
into  the  dynamic  force  of  character  is  lost.  "Is  there  any  en- 
thusiasm of  goodness  that  can  be  excessive  or  unnatural  in  those 
who  realize  what  it  is  to  be,  in  very  truth,  'children  of  God'? 
If,  as  a  native  of  Tarsus,  the  Apostle  could  not  help  saying  with 
a  glow  of  pride  that  he  was  a  'citizen  of  no  mean  city,'  how  is 
it  possible,  without  a  flush  of  higher  joy,  for  anyone  to  know 
himself  a  denizen  of  the  city  and  commonwealth  of  God?287 
The  tremulous  purpose  has  an  infinite  Ally.  The  self-strain  is 
exchanged  for  self-surrender."  288  The  normal  school  which 
undertakes  to  train  the  teacher  lacks  this  vital  power,  this 
essential  factor  of  education  for  which  moral  education  is  not 
a  possible  substitute. 

The  widespread  awakening  to  the  need  of  giving  teachers  the 
point  of  view  and  the  spirit  of  service  to  equip  them .  to  train 
for  citizenship  has  not  substantially  affected  normal  school 
ideals.  The  contributions  to  the  curriculum  have  been  chiefly 
to  secure  vocational  efficiency.  This  is  one  essential  element  of 
preparation  for  citizenship.  The  ethical  element  is  equally 
essential,  and  unless  personal  efficiency  is  developed  in  an 

zse  \Vundt,  W.,  Facts  of  the  Moral  Life,  translated  by  J.  Gulliver.  New 
York,  1897,  p.  226. 

287  Martineau,  J.,  op.  cit.,  p.  27. 

288  Ibid.,  p.  22. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  97 

altruistic  spirit,  it  may  be  as  much  opposed  to  the  spirit  of 
service  as  the  cosmic  process  is  irreconcilable  with  the  ethical 
process.289 

III.      AGENCIES  FOR  HEIGHTENING   WILLINGNESS   FOR  DISINTERESTED 
SERVICE  IN  THE  STATE  TEACHER  WHILE  IN  TRAINING 

Efficiency  is  maintained  only  by  continual  growth.  Teaching 
efficiency,  therefore,  calls  for  progressive  improvement  of  per- 
sonal equipment.  As  the  teacher's  requisite  equipment  is  both 
intellectual  and  moral,  personal  training  throughout  the  teach- 
er's career  should  be  continued  along  both  these  lines.  "The 
training  that  produced  a  satisfactory  teacher  for  1890  or  for 
1900,  or  even  for  1910,  will  not  suffice  for  a  teacher  for  1915 
or  1920.  The  teacher  must  know  more,  and  her  ideals  for  public 
service  must  have  expanded  along  with  her  years  of  service. 
Teachers  are  in  no  way  exempt  from  the  same  conditions  which 
produce  inefficiency  in  other  professional  workers."  29°  The 
State  authorities  recognize  a  threefold  need  of  agencies  for  the 
improvement  of  teachers  while  in  service:  (1)  To  give  training, 
however  meagre,  to  the  eighty  per  cent  and  more  of  the  entire 
teaching  body  of  the  State  schools  who  enter  upon  the  work 
without  any  preparation.291  (2)  To  supplement  the  training 
received  before  the  teacher  entered  active  service  which,  there- 
fore, lacked  the  necessary  basis  of  experience.  (3)  To  maintain 
the  level  of  efficiency  of  those  who  have  had  both  training  and 
experience  by  stimulating  to  further  improvement  in  order  to 
equip  the  teacher  for  the  changing  character  of  the  demands 
and  standards  in  education.292  "The  principles  and  practices, 
the  theory  and  art,  of  education  are  constantly  undergoing,  in 
common  with  all  other  phases  of  civilization,  modification  and 
development.  Likewise,  the  field  of  education  in  which  in- 
struction is  given,  and  the  habits  which  education  seeks  to  form, 
are  always  changing.  .  .  .  No  matter  what  the  initial 


289  Cf.  Huxley,  T.,  op.  cit.,  pp.  81-84. 

190  Cubberley,    E.    P.,    Public   School   Administration.     Boston,    1916,    pp. 
282-33. 

191  Cf.  Judd,  C.  H.,  op.  cit.,  p.  77;     Perry,  A.  C.,  The  Status  of  the  Teachtr. 
Boston,  1912,  p.  59. 

292  Cf.  Dutton  and  Snedden,  Administration  of  Public  Education  in  th« 
United  States.  New  York,  1908,  pp.  276-77.  Cf.  Brown,  E.  E.,  "Introduc- 
tion" in  Agencies  for  the  Improvement  of  Teachers  in  Service.  Cf.  Ruediger, 
W.  C.,  United  States  Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin,  No.  3,  1911,  p.  5. 


98  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

equipment  of  a  teacher  may  be,  he  should  be  progressively  effi- 
cient during  his  entire  period  of  service."  293 

The  agencies  for  improvement  of  teachers  while  in  service  fall 
into  the  following  classes:  (1)  Teachers'  institutes.  (2)  Sum- 
mer sessions  at  normal  schools  and  universities.  (3)  Teachers' 
meetings.  (4)  Teachers'  associations.  (5)  Beading  circles. 
(6)  Sabbatical  years.  (7)  Teachers'  federations. 

Historically,  the  teachers'  institute  is  coincident  with  the 
normal  school.  uln  1839  Henry  Barnard  assembled  at  Hartford, 
Connecticut,  twenty-six  young  men  and  formed  them  into  a 
class.  They  were  taught  six  weeks  by  able  lecturers  and  teach- 
ers and  had  the  advantage  of  observation  in  the  public  schools 
of  Hartford."  294  The  name  "institute"  was  not  used,  however, 
until  1843,  by  J.  S.  Denman,  Superintendent  of  New  York,  in 
which  State,  as  well  as  in  most  of  the  New  England  States,  the 
movement  become  popular.  In  the  same  year  Horace  Mann 
organized  the  first  institute  in  Massachusetts  and  met  the  ex- 
penses with  a  benefaction  of  $1,000  placed  at  his  disposal.  The 
attendance  at  each  institute  was  restricted  to  one  hundred 
teachers,  fifty  male  and  fifty  female.  That  each  was  paid  $2 
for  attending  two  full  weeks  is  evidence  that  the  economic 
motive  for  professional  growth  was  in  the  educational  con- 
sciousness at  the  time.  After  that,  the  legislature  made  ap- 
propriations for  the  instructors'  salaries  and  the  practice  of 
paying  the  teachers  for  attending  was  discontinued  in  that 
place.295  The  principle  of  direct  compensation  for  attendance 
still  obtains.  "In  most  States  teachers  who  attend  an  institute 
during  the  term  of  their  regular  employment  are  allowed  to  do 
so  on  pay  the  same  as  for  teaching.  Minnesota  seems  to  be  the 
only  exception."  298  In  twenty-nine  States  the  regular  salary 
is  allowed.  In  seven  or  eight  States,  as  in  Indiana  and  Ohio, 
the  teachers  receive  regular  pay  for  attendance  even  when  the 
institute  is  held  in  vacation,  and  in  some  States  the  induce- 
ment of  a  certain  per  cent  increase  of  the  average  standing  is 


293  Updegraff,    H.,    "The  Improvement    of    Teachers  in  Service    of    City 
Schools,"  National  Educational  Association  Proceedings,  1911,  p.  434. 

294  Smart,  J.  H.,   Teachers'  Institute,  United  States  Bureau  of  Education, 
No.  2,  1885,  p.  35. 

295  Cf.  Ruediger,  W.  C.,  Agencies  for    the    Improvement  of  Teachers  in  Ser- 
vice, op.  cit.,  p.  11. 

298  Hollister,  H.  A.,  op.  cit.,  p.  179. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  99 

offered.297  In  Massachusetts  and  Maine  the  legislature  pro- 
vides that  if  a  county  association  of  teachers  hold  an  annual 
meeting  of  not  less  than  one  day  for  the  purpose  of  promoting 
the  interests  of  the  public  school,  it  shall  receive  |50  from  the 
Commonwealth.298  The  economic  incentive  to  secure  attend- 
ance which  has  been  widely  adopted  by  the  States  is  not  well 
calculated  to  produce  the  soil  which  grows  the  fine  flower  of 
sacrifice  and  service.  The  following  types  of  exercise  are  found 
in  all  teachers'  institutes :  classes  for  the  study  and  the  review 
of  subject  matter;  lessons  on  devices,  method,  applied 
psychology ;  and  inspirational  lectures  to  engender  enthusiasm 
for  teaching.299  The  teachers'  institutes  are  attended  chiefly 
by  rural  school  teachers  and  by  young  inexperienced  persons 
who  are  preparing  to  enter  rural  school  service ;  scarcely  at  all 
by  city  elementary  school  teachers  and  almost  never  by  high 
school  teachers.  The  institute  serves  three  purposes:  (1)  A 
professional  training  school  for  teachers.  (2)  A  teachers' 
meeting  in  which  the  members  are  informed  of  the  educational 
policies  of  the  State  or  county  and  of  what  is  new  in  edu- 
cational thought.  (3)  A  teachers'  association  for  social  ends. 
Forty-three  States  make  legal  provision  for  institutes.300  It 
is  predicted,  however,  that  the  institute  will  disappear  and  that 
it  will  be  replaced  by  the  summer  normal  schools,  by  official 
county  and  district  teachers'  meetings,  and  by  voluntary  teach- 
ers' associations.301 

The  summer  normal  schools  usually  continue  in  session  from 
three  to  twelve  weeks;  the  usual  session  is  six  weeks.  They 
are  conducted  on  the  plan  of  schools  in  which  lessons  are  pre- 
pared and  discussed.  Both  academic  and  professional  equip- 
ment is  secured  and  preparation  is  made  for  higher  certificates. 
Summer  sessions  in  State  normals  are  held  in  seventeen 
States.302  Summer  schools  in  colleges  and  universities  offer 
courses  in  the  traditional  academic  studies  and  also  in  those 


197  Cf.  Hollister,  ibid.,  p.  179. 

298  Cf.  Dutton  and  Snedden,  op.  cit.,  p.  279. 

299  Cf.  Ruediger,  ibid.,  p.  17. 

800  Cf.  Hollister,  op.  cit.,  p.  179. 

301  Cf.  Ruediger,  op.  cit.,  p.  32.     Johnston,  C.  H.,  "The  Relation  of  the 
First  Class  Normal  Schools  to  Departments  and  Schools  of  Education  in 
Universities,"  The  School  Review  Monograph,  No.  11.     Chicago,  1912,  p.  37. 

302  Cf.  Ruediger,  W.  C.,  op.  cit.,  p.  49. 


100  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

subjects  that  have  recently  come  into  vogue,  as  agriculture, 
nature  study,  manual  and  industrial  training,  and  domestic 
science  and  art. 

Correspondence  study  furnishes  an  opportunity  to  teachers 
in  service  to  take  courses  in  any  grade  of  work  from  that  of 
the  high  school  to  graduate  work.  Work  is  planned  to  enable 
teachers  to  pass  examination  for  certificates  and  to  give  instruc- 
tion in  nature  study  and  elementary  agriculture.  Correspon- 
dence study  is  a  recently  founded  educational  agency.  In  1904 
the  Chicago  University  was  the  only  higher  institution  which 
furnished  it.303  In  1910  not  less  than  ten  State  universities, 
two  colleges,  and  five  normal  schools  offered  correspondence 
courses.304 

General  teachers'  meetings  whose  functions  are  primarily  ad- 
ministrative, legislative,  and  inspirational  serve  an  obvious  edu 
cational  purpose.  They  furnish  an  opportunity  to  decide  upon 
a  uniform  educational  policy  for  the  community,  and  they  give 
new  educational  points  of  view  and  inspiration  to  the  teach- 
ers.305 Teachers'  associations  are  differentiated  from  teachers^ 
meetings  by  the  element  of  voluntary  attendance  and  the  legal 
equality  of  all.  The  associations  are  of  various  constituencies, 
county,  sectional,  state,  and  national,  all  partaking  of  the 
same  nature,  but  with  distinctive  features  depending  upon  the 
character  of  the  membership.  The  benefit  derived  from  these 
associations  is  primarily  inspirational  in  the  renewal  of  pro- 
fessional interest  which  comes  from  the  mutual  exchange  among 
teachers  of  views  and  sympathies.306  "Both  state  and  national 
teachers'  associations  have  merely  an  occasional  purpose."  SOT 

The  reading  circles  for  teachers  have  been  developed  since 
1883  when  the  first  circle  was  organized  by  the  Ohio  State 
Teachers'  Association.  At  present,  thirty-seven  States  have 
reading  circles;  two  of  these,  Florida  and  Pennsylvania,  hare 
county  reading  circles.  The  other  thirty-five  have  State  reading 
circles  whose  membership  varies  from  forty  in  South  Carolina 


303  Cf.  Dexter,  E.  G.,  op.  cit.,  p.  547. 
804  Cf.  Ruediger,  W.  C.,  op.  cit.,  p.  58. 
»6  Cf.  Ruediger,  W.  C.,  ibid.,  pp.  65,  66. 
»°«  Cf.  Ruediger,  W.  C.,  ibid.,  pp.  8^91. 

107  Suzzallo,   H.,   "The  Reorganization  of  the  Teaching   "Profession,   Na- 
tional Educational  Association  Proceedings,  1913,  p.  370. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  \  I'Ol 

to  all  the  teachers  in  Kansas.308  Usually,  two  or  more  lines  of 
work  are  assumed,  of  which  pedagogy  or  education  holds  the 
first  place  and  literature  is  next  in  importance.309 

Courses  of  lectures  on  literary,  historical,  scientific,  and  semi- 
professional  subjects,  extension  classes  and  intra-mural  classes 
in  the  evening  or  on  Saturday  are  offered  by  universities, 
colleges,  and  some  normal  schools  in  cities  large  enough  to 
furnish  an  adequate  number  of  students,  enabling  teachers  to 
earn  degrees  while  in  service.  Extra-mural  classes  are  con- 
ducted by  members  of  the  faculty  of  the  college  or  of  the  uni- 
versity, who  meet  a  group  of  twenty  students  or  more  removed 
from  the  seat  of  the  school  and  organized  into  a  class.810 

The  custom  of  granting  the  sabbatical  year  for  the  purpose 
of  study  and  travel  is  extending  to  the  high  school  and  ele- 
mentary schools  in  a  few  cities  in  the  East.  The  conditions 
are  usually  a  year's  leave  of  absence  with  one-third  or  one-half 
pay  after  a  certain  number  of  years  of  service,  usually  varying 
from  seven  to  ten.  The  teacher  is  required  to  map  out  a  course 
of  study  in  some  recognized  institution  of  learning  and  have 
it  approved.  In  case  of  travel,  her  itinerary  must  be  approved 
in  the  same  way.311 

In  connection  with  the  agencies  for  the  improvement  of 
teachers  while  in  service,  the  American  Federation  of  Teachers 
should  be  considered.  This  organization  was  founded  in 
Chicago,  April  15,  1916.  It  was  the  result  of  a  joint  committee 
of  three  federations  of  teachers  which  had  been  working  for 
two  years  to  establish  such  a  federation.  On  May  9,  1916,  it 
was  affiliated  with  the  national  federation  of  labor.312  The  ob- 
jects are:  (1)  to  promote  among  teachers  mutual  assistance 
and  cooperation;  (2)  to  secure  rights  and  benefits  to  which 
they  are  entitled;  (3)  to  raise  the  standard  of  the  profession 
by  securing  conditions  essential  to  professional  service;  (4)  to 
promote  the  democratization  of  the  schools  for  the  ultimate 


308  Cf.  Ruediger,  ibid.,  p.  93. 

309  Cf.  Button  and  Snedden,  op.  cit.,  p.  288. 

810  Cf.  Judd,  C.  H.,  "The  Normal  School  Extension  Course  in  Education," 
National  Educational  Association  Proceedings,  1915,  p.  772. 

111  Cf.  Ruediger,  op.  cit.,  p.  113.  United  States  Bulletin,  No.  13,  1913,  pp. 
23-25.  Belcher,  K.  F.,  "The  Sabbatical  Year  for  the  Public  School,"  Educa- 
tional Review,  Vol.  XLV,  pp.  478-79. 

311  Cf .  Constitution  of  the  American  Federation  of  Teacher*.    Chicago,  1916,  p.  1. 


10?  Pedagogical   Value   of   Willingness 

v 

industrial,  social,  and  political  good  of  the  community.313 
These  purposes  center  around  the  question  of  salary,  tenure, 
and  security  of  office,  the  professional  standards  of  teachers, 
and  the  democratization  of  the  schools.  "Pensions,  tenure, 
and  pay  are  vital  problems,  but  they  cannot  and  should  not  be 
made  the  prime  basis  of  teachers'  associations.  To  do  so  is  to 
focus  our  professional  vigor  on  personal  return  rather  than  on 
impersonal  service."314  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  basis  of 
organization  of  the  Teachers'  Federation  is  essentially  economic. 
The  ground  of  justification  of  this  movement  on  the  part  of  the 
teachers  is  the  necessity  of  organized  strength  to  face  the 
tyrany  of  school  board  management.  The  stated  purpose  of  the 
teachers'  union  of  New  York  City  is  to  secure  permanent  salary 
schedules  and  tenure  of  office  by  affiliation  with  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor :  uThe  movement  to  unionize  the  teachers 
of  New  York  City  through  an  affiliation  of  the  Teachers'  League 
with  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  is  indicative  of  a  situ- 
ation in  public  education  that  must  be  recognized,  more  agree- 
able though  it  might  be  to  gloss  it  over  or  to  neglect  it  en- 
tirely." 315  Doctor  Dewey  justifies  its  affiliation  with  the  labor 
unions  on  the  basis  that  they  are  also  servants  of  the  public  and 
possibly  the  influence  of  the  affiliated  teachers,  with  their  high 
intelligence,  will'  leaven  the  whole  mass  and  bring  the  entire 
body  of  federated  laborers  to  look  at  their  labor  not  from  the 
standpoint  of  their  personal  interests,  but  from  that  of  service 
to  the  general  public.316  By  what  influence  or  means  the  per- 
sonal interest  of  the  teachers  in  the  federation  develops  into 
public  spiritedness  Doctor  Dewey  does  not  state.  For  egoism 
to  give  place  to  altruism  it  is  necessary  that  the  will  be  habitu- 
ally exercised  on  behalf  of  others.  As  far  as  the  purposes  are 
defined,  the  federation  of  teachers  is  for  self -protection. 

The  effect  of  partisanship  arising  from  the  teachers  affiliating 
with  the  labor  union  will  not  improve  their  professional  spirit. 
On  the  contrary,  affilitaion  with  one  specific  occupational 


»i»  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  3. 

«14Suzzallo,  H.,  "The  Reorganization  of  the  Teaching  Profession,"  Na- 
tional  Educational  Association  Proceedings,  1913,  p.  366. 

116  Bagley.  W.  C.,  School  and  Home  Education,  Vol.  XXXV,  p.  245. 

116  Cf.  Dewey,  J.,  "Professional  Organization  of  Teachers,"  The  American 
Teacher,  Vol.  VII,  p.  101. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  103 

group  will  ipso  facto  generate  a  partisan  attitude  in  the  teach- 
ers, the  very  spirit  which  must  be  overcome  in  the  youth  of  the 
country.  True  citizenship  means  rising  above  all  class  and 
racial  animosities.  So  long  as  teachers  ally  themselves  with  any 
class  there  is  danger  that  they  may  acquire  militant  tenden- 
cies and  lose  the  spirit  of  charity  which  is  the  essence  of  the 
apostolate  of  the  teacher. 

The  agencies  at  hand  for  the  improvement  of  teachers  while 
in  service  are  concerned  exclusively  with  the  improvement 
of  their  academic  and  professional  equipment.  To  secure  this 
advancement,  a  direct  economic  stimulus  is  recommended  and 
is  increasingly  adopted.  "A  salary  schedule  based  only  in  part 
on  years  of  service,  and  with  additional  rewards  for  growth 
and  efficiency  'after  the  common  maximum  has  been  reached, 
offers  one  of  the  best  means  for  providing  the  proper  stimulus 
for  further  professional  growth."317  The  desire  for  personal 
improvement  is  in  direct  proportion  to  the  stimulus  it  receives. 
The  law  of  growth  applies  equally  in  the  moral  and  in  the  in- 
tellectual spheres.  If  the  impulse  is  given  to  improve  in  aca- 
demic and  professional  lines  only,  the  importance  of  moral 
vitality  may  be  easily  crowded  to  the  periphery  of  conscious- 
ness. The  constant  enrichment  of  the  personal  worth  of  the 
teacher  comes  only  by  daily  strivings  to  realize  her  ideals  of 
justice,  charity,  and  self-sacrifice.  The  agencies  for  improve- 
ment furnished  to  the  State  teacher  while  in  service  neither 
offer  methods  for  advancement  in  these  virtues  nor  contain  any 
suggestion  of  the  need  of  their  cultivation.  That  the  greatest 
work  of  the  school  should  receive  a  proportionate  attention,  both 
in  the  preparation  of  the  teacher  and  in  her  improvement  while 
in  service,  is  a  natural  inference.  Educators  state  with  in- 
creasing clearness  and  force  that  teaching  is  more  of  a  spirit- 
ual activity  than  a  mental  process,  and  that  the  formation  of 
a  worthy  character  is  the  primal  aim  of  education.  The  ex- 
perts of  educational  theory  have  declared  that  the  teacher 
should  have  the  spirit  of  consecration  to  her  work  and  willing- 
ness for  disinterested  service.  Yet  the  basis  of  preparation  and 
of  the  test  of  fitness  is  essentially  intellectual.  The  State  has 


»»  Cubberley,  E.  P.,  Public  School  Administration.     Boston,  1916,  p.  267. 


104  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

no  means  whereby  it  can  develop  the  spirit  of  sacrifice  and 
service;  it  has  no  resources  to  call  to  its  aid  for  the  practical 
cultivation  of  the  ideals  of  virtue.  What  lies  beyond  its  power 
to  furnish  in  the  training  of  its  teachers,  it  overlooks  and 
ignores  in  its  requirements  of  them.  To  those  to  whom 
it  commits  its  nurseries  of  citizenship  it  gives  a  stim- 
ulus to  improve  academically  and  professionally;  but  to  hold 
in  high  esteem  the  moral  equipment  of  the  teacher,  to  feel  pro- 
foundly the  vital  importance  of  the  self-cultivation  of  character, 
to  advance  from  virtue  to  virtue,  in  a  word  to  cultivate  the 
moral  interests  of  life,  the  State  gives  its  teachers  no  aid  or  in- 
ducement. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    PREPARATION    OF   THE    RELIGIOUS    TEACHER    TO    TRAIN    IN 
WILLINGNESS  FOR  DISINTERESTED  SERVICE 

Chapter  V  showed  the  means  at  hand  in  the  State  school 
system  to  prepare  the  teacher  for  efficiency  in  cultivating  the 
quality  of  disinterestedness  in  her  pupils.  The  present  chapter 
purposes  to  inquire  into  the  means  possessed  by  the  Catholic 
system  to  equip  the  intending  teacher  for  the  same  high  re- 
sponsibility. A  study  of  the  same  three  vital  factors  of  the 
process  which  were  considered  in  the  preceding  chapter  will 
be  made.  These  factors  are:  the  principle  of  selection;  the 
training  in  disinterestedness  received  by  the  intending  teacher ; 
and  the  means  of  heightening  this  quality  of  the  teacher  while 
in  service. 

1.  The  Principle  of  Selection 

The  teachers  of  the  Catholic  schools  are,  for  the  most  part, 
members  of  religious  orders  or  congregations.318  The  develop- 
ment of  the  Catholic  school  system  has  been  marked  by  two 
tendencies.  The  first  was  the  replacement  of  male  teachers  by 
women.  The  second  was  the  replacement  of  lay  teachers,  men 
and  women,  by  religious.  Thirty-five  years  ago,  especially  in 
the  Middle  West,  lay  teachers  were  commonly  engaged  in  the 
parish  schools.  At  present,  they  are  employed  only  in  excep- 
tional cases  and  then  usually  in  the  capacity  of  assistants  to  the 
religious  teachers.319  The  religious  teachers  have  taken  the 


318  Religious  orders  and  congregations  agree  in  the  following  points:     (1) 
They  are  associations  of  persons  of  the  same  sex  who  live  under  a  common 
rule;  (2)  The  members  have  bound  themselves  by  the  three  vows  of  poverty, 
chastity,  and  obedience  to  strive  for  Christian  perfection  according  to  the 
Gospel;  (3)  Their  association  has  been  sanctioned  by  papal,  or  at  least  by 
episcopal  approbation.    They  differ  in  this,  that  the  members  of  a  religious 
order  are  bound  for  life  by  solemn  vows  carrying  characteristic  obligations; 
whereas,  the  members  of  a  religious  congregation  are  bound  by  simple  vows, 
which  at  first  may  be  temporary  only,  for  one  year,  or  for  three  years,  or 
more,  but  which  ultimately  must  become  permanent,  extending  to  the  end  of 
life.     Cf.  Heimbucher,  M.  J.,  Die  Orden  und  Kongregationen  der  Katholischen 
Kirche.     Paderborn,  1907,  Vol.  I,  pp.  1  ff.,  23  ff. 

Throughout  the  chapter,  the  study  will  be  based  upon  the  religious  teach- 
ing congregations  of  women  exclusively,  all  of  whom  live  under  simple  vows. 
Therefore,  we  shall  use  the  term  congregation  only. 

319  Cf.  Burns,  J.  A.,  "The  Training  of  the  Teacher,"  The  American  Catholic 
Quarterly  Review,  Vol.  XXVIII,  p.  672. 

105 


106  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

vows  of  voluntary  poverty,  perpetual  chastity,  and  obedience 
to  a  superior,  and  practice  the  three  virtues  which  are  the 
objects  of  the  vows. 

The  religious  State,  called  the  state  of  perfection,320  "is  a 
stable  form  of  life  approved  by  the  Church,  in  which  the  faithful 
by  the  three  vows  of  poverty,  chastity,  and  obedience  and  by 
a  certain  rule  tend  to  the  perfection  of  charity."321  Those  who 
have  bound  themselves  by  the  vows  are  called  religious. 

In  the  economy  of  the  Church,  the  religious  life  is  a  state  of 
life  set  apart  for  those  who  have  a  special  function  to  fulfill. 
Not  that  there  are  two  standards  of  morality,  one  for  the 
religious  and  one  for  secular  Christians,  as  is  held  by  some  who, 
not  knowing  the  Church,  lack  all  insight  into  her  economy. 
According  to  the  Christian  philosophy  of  life,  every  one  has  :-• 
distinct  vocation  and  every  one  is  called  to  perfection.  The 
religious  differ  from  other  Christians  only  in  this,  they  are 
called  by  God  to  serve  Him  in  a  particular  way,  either  to  live 
a  life  of  contemplative  prayer,  or  a  mode  of  life  uniting  both 
the  contemplative  and  the  active  service,  helping  others  to  sane 
tification.  They  manifest  their  appreciation  of  this  precious 
privilege  by  practicing  the  renunciation  required  by  the  Evan- 
gelical Counsels  of  poverty,  chastity,  and  obedience  which  Our 
Lord  recommended  as  the  most  perfect  means  to  attain  per- 
fection. 

Neither  the  vows  nor  the  virtues  which  are  the  object  of  the 
vows  are  the  end  of  religious  life.  They  are  but  the  means,  the 
instruments  to  attain  the  end,  which  is  the  perfection  of 
charity.322  Saint  Thomas  sets  forth  the  contents  of  the  vows 
and  the  reasons  for  the  special  facilities  which  they  offer  to 
attain  perfection :  "The  things  to  be  first  given  up  are  those 
least  closely  united  to  ourselves.  Therefore,  the  renunciation 


120  "The  state  of  perfection  is  suggested  by  the  words  of  Jesus  Christ  to 
the  young  man:     'If  thou  wilt  be  perfect,  go  sell  what  thou  hast,  and  give  to 
the  poor,  and  thou  shalt  have  treasure  in  heaven:  and  come  follow  Me.' 
Matthew,  XIX,  21."     Proctor,  J.,  O.P.,  The  Religious  State.     London,  1902. 
p.  1. 

121  "Est  stabilis  vitae  conditio  ab  Ecclesia  approbata,  in  qua  fideles  per  tria 
tola  paupertatis,  continentiae,  et  obedientiae  et  certam  regulam  tendunt  ad  per- 
fectionen  charitatis."     Priimmer,   D.   M.,   O.P.,   Manuele  Juris   Ecclesiastici . 
Freiburg,  1907,  Vol.  II,  p.  1. 

151  Cf.  Summa,  Ila,  IIae}  Q  CLXXXVI,  A.  7.  Ad  unum. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  107 

of  material  possessions,  which  are  extrinsic  to  our  nature,  must 
be  our  first  step  on  the  road  to  perfection.  The  next  objects 
to  be  sacrificed  will  be  those  which  are  united  to  our  nature 
by  a  certain  communion  and  necessary  affinity.  .  .  .  Now, 
among  all  relationships  the  conjugal  tie  does,  more  than  any 
other,  engross  men's  hearts.  .  .  .  Hence,  they  who  are  aim- 
ing at  perfection  must  above  all  things  avoid  the  bond  of  mar- 
riage which  in  a  pre-eminent  degree  entangles  men  in  earthly 
concerns.  .  ,.  .  Therefore,  the  second  means  whereby  a 
man  may  be  more  free  to  devote  himself  to  God,  and  to  cleave 
more  perfectly  to  Him,  is  by  the  observance  of  perpetual 
chastity.  But  continence  possesses  the  further  advantage  of 
affording  a  peculiar  facility  to  the  acquirement  of  perfection. 
For  the  soul  is  hindered  in  its  free  access  to  God  not  only  by 
the  love  of  exterior  things,  but  much  more  by  force  of  interior 
passions."623 

"It  is  not  only  necessary  for  the  perfection  of  charity  that  a 
man  should  sacrifice  his  exterior  possessions;  he  must  also,  in 
a  certain  sense,  relinquish  himself.  .  .  .  This  practice  of 
salutary  self-abnegation  and  charitable  self-hatred*  is,  in  part, 
necessary  for  all  men  in  order  to  gain  salvation  and  is  partly 
a  point  of  perfection.  .  .  .  It  is  in  the  nature  of  divine  love 
existing  in  an  individual  soul.  It  is  essential  to  salvation  that  a 
man  should  love  God  to  such  a  degree  as  to  make  Him  his  end, 
and  to  do  nothing  which  he  believes  to  be  opposed  to  the  Divine 
Love.  Consequently,  self-hatred  and  self-denial  are  necessary 
for  salvation.  .  .  .  But  in  order  to  attain  perfection,  we 
must  further,  for  the  love  of  God,  sacrifice  what  we  might  law- 
fully use,  in  order  thus  to  be  more  free  to  devote  ourselves  to 
Him.  It  follows,  therefore,  that  self-hatred  and  self-denial 
pertain  to  perfection.  .  .  .  Now,  the  more  dearly  a  thing 
is  loved  according  to  nature,  the  more  perfect  it  is  to  despise 
it  for  the  sake  of  Christ.  Nothing  is  dearer  to  any  man  than  the 
freedom  of  his  will.  .  .  .  Just,  therefore,  as  a  person  re- 
linquishes his  wealth  and  leaves  those  to  whom  he  is  bound  by 
natural  ties,  denies  these  things  and  persons;  so  he,  who  re 


821  Saint   Thomas,    The   Religious   Life,   Translated   by   Proctor,   J.,   O.P. 
London,  1902,  pp.  26-28. 

*  Used  in  the  sense  of  self-mortification. 


108  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

nounces  his  own  will,  which  makes  him  master,  does  truly  deny 
himself.  .  .  .  [Keligious]  make  a  complete  sacrifice  of 
their  own  will  for  the  love  of  God,  submitting  themselves  to 
another  by  the  vow  of  obedience,  of  which  virtue  Christ  has 
given  us  a  sublime  example."324 

The  life  of  detachment  and  renunciation  required  by  the  ob- 
servance of  the  Counsels  will  operate  by  its  very  nature  as  a 
process  of  spiritual  selection  to  sift  out  those  who  have  the 
sacrificial  spirit  and  who  are  willing  to  embrace  the  sacrificial 
life  from  those  who  do  not  wish,  at  least  openly,  to  embrace 
and  profess  a  life  of  service.  Those  who  accept  this  require- 
ment, accept  deliberately,  and  are  conscious  that  they  are  enter- 
ing upon  the  high  road  of  unselfish  service  which  demands  self- 
sacrifice. 

The  vow  of  poverty  by  which  the  religious  relinquishes  her 
claim  to  material  possessions  excludes  the  economic  motive, 
hence  there  need  be  no  thought  of  financial  rewards.  The  only 
sure  deliverance  from  the  thralldom  of  wealth  is  a  complete 
detachment  from  material  things.  The  Philosophers  of  the 
Ideal  Kepublic  possessed  neither  gold  nor  silver  in  order  that, 
free  from  the  cares  of  wealth,  they  might  devote  themselves 
unreservedly  to  the  affairs  of  State.  Plato  based  the  Kepublic 
upon  the  psychology  of  the  human  mind.  Our  Lord  placed 
His  seal  of  approval  upon  the  same  principle  in  His  answer  to 
the  rich  young  ruler.  "If  thou  wilt  be  perfect,  go  sell  what 
thou  hast,  and  give  to  the  poor,  and  thou  shalt  have  treasures 
in  heaven :  and  come  follow  me."325  That  voluntary  poverty  is  a 
severe  test  of  the  sacrificial  spirit  is  proved  by  the  fact  that 
the  young  man  who  had  kept  the  commandments  from  his 
youth  was  not  equal  to  the  test,  but  "went  away  sad :  for  he  had 
great  possessions."356  His  love  of  wealth  was  the  barrier  to  high 
service  in  Christ's  kingdom  on  earth.  Bound  by  his  "greai 
possessions5'  he  lost  the  highest  good  of  life,  an  intimate  service 
of  God,  and  was  committed  to  the  lesser  good  of  life. 

The  vow  of  obedience  by  which  the  religious  renounces  her 
own  will  and  promises  to  obey  a  superior  excludes  the  self- 


124  Ibid.,  pp.  41-47. 
»«  Matthew,  XIX,  21. 

'26  Ibid.,  22. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  109 

seeking  motive.  Self-denial  must  enter  into  every  Christian  life. 
To  every  one  Our  Lord  gave  the  law  of  self-denial:  "And 
calling  the  multitude  together  with  His  disciples,  He  said  to 
them :  'If  any  man  will  follow  Me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and 
take  up  his  cross,  and  follow  Me'."  327  But  the  religious  must 
go  to  the  uttermost  length  of  self-surrender  and  renounce  not 
only  her  possessions,  but  also  her  will,  the  most  intimately 
active  element  of  personality.  She  renounces  her  freedom  only 
to  rise  to  the  higher  level  of  freedom  of  finding  God's  will  and 
doing  it  in  all  her  actions  because  it  is  His  Will.  To  realize 
this  larger  freedom  by  the  surrender  of  self-will  is  the  logical 
outcome  of  the  fundamental  law  of  self-sacrifice  as  given  by 
Our  Lord  in  the  paradox.  "He  that  shall  lose  his  life  for  My 
sake,  shall  find  it."328 

Kenunciation  is  fundamentally  related  to  self -discipline ;  and 
notwithstanding  the  widely  current  misconception  of  its  value, 
it  is  intimately  linked  with  self -conquest  in  the  process  of  char- 
acter-building. There  are  basic  laws  governing  the  balance  of 
human  character  just  as  inexorable  as  the  mechanical  laws 
controlling  the  physical  universe.  One  of  these  is  the  ascetic 
principle  which  may  be  stated  in  many  ways,  but  which  con- 
sists essentially  in  this:  to  live  rationally  one  must  restrain 
the  natural  impulses.  If  we  admit  that  character  is  distinctly 
a  fruit  of  education,  then  by  implication  we  admit  the  high 
value  of  the  capacity  of  doing  without  and  the  ability  of  en- 
during hardships,  two  vital  elements  of  character  and  inti- 
mately related.  If  these  two  qualities  are  to  persist  in  char- 
acter, they  must  be  rooted  in  daily  life  by  the  practice  of  re- 
nunciation. 

Eenunciation  and  asceticism  'are  kindred  terms.  Asceticism 
should  not  be  regarded  as  an  attempt  to  eradicate  natural 
forces,  but  as  practice  in  the  art  of  self-discipline.  "Without 
a  recognition,  on  principle,  of  the  value  of  asceticism  and 
without  its  educational  assistance,  people  will  not  acquire  and 
retain  a  certain  and  ripened  power  for  the  controlling  of 
natural  instincts.329  The  word  asceticism  is  derived  from 


»«  Mark,  VIII,  34. 
*28  Matthew,  XVI,  25. 

329  Foerster,  F.  W.,  Marriage  and  the  Sex  Problem,  op.  cit.,  pp.  XIV,  XV. 
(The  italics  are  the  author's.) 


110  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

'aoKrjois,  which  means  exercise,  and  herein  lies  its  essential 
meaning.  In  ancient  Greece  it  meant  the  discipline  practiced 
by  athletes  in  training  for  their  games.  The  word  was  taken 
over  by  Stoic  philosophy  to  signify  that  the  disciple  required 
not  merely  to  overcome  the  desires  and  passions,  but  to  eradi- 
cate them."330  In  the  Christian  sense  it  has  no  such  meaning.  It 
is  rather  the  method  of  attaining  self-control  by  the  man  who 
recognizes  the  moral  obligation  of  keeping  nature  under  con- 
trol so  that  reason  may  rule  his  conduct.  The  athlete,  the 
student,  the  saint,  each  must  practice  it  in  order  to  attain  his 
goal.  The  importance  of  ascetic  principle  to  the  athlete  is 
vital.  Saint  Paul  uses  an  illustration  taken  from  the  Isthmian 
games  to  drive  home  to  the  Corinthians  the  need  of  self-denial : 
"And  every  one  that  striveth  for  the  mastery,  refraineth  himself 
from  all  things."331  What  is  true  of  its  value  on  the  physical 
side  of  life,  is  true  also  in  the  mental  and  moral  world.  Its 
value  in  the  intellectual  life  is  attested  by  Professor  Tyndall. 
He  said  of  scientific  inductive  research:  "It  requires  patient 
industry  and  an  humble  and  conscientious  acceptance  of  what 
nature  reveals.  ...  A  self-renunciation  which  has  some- 
thing noble  in  it,  and  of  which  the  world  never  hears,  is  often 
enacted  in  the  private  experience  of  the  true  votary  of 
science."332  Huxley  says:  "The  ethical  progress  depends  not 
on  imitating  the  cosmic  process,  but  in  combating  it.  ... 
Much  may  be  done  to  change  the  nature  of  man  himself.  The 
intelligence  which  has  converted  the  brother  of  the  wolf  into 
the  faithful  guardian  of  the  flock  ought  to  be  able  to  do  some- 
thing towards  curbing  the  instincts  of  savagery  in  civilized 
man."333  Saint  Paul,  that  master  of  the  spiritual  life,  said :  "I 
chastise  my  body,  and  bring  it  into  subjection:  lest  perhaps, 
when  I  have  preached  to  others,  I  myself  should  become  a  cast- 
away."334 Saint  Paul  uses  the  term  in  the  Christian  sense  of 
bringing  under  control  the  physical  appetites  and  energies  which 
must  be  subdued  in  order  that  the  spiritual  interests  may  have 
place  in  man's  life.  The  unitary  character  of  the  human  person, 

330  Cf.  Turner,  W.,  History  of  Philosophy.     Boston,  1903,  p.  173. 

331  I.  Corinthians,  IX,  25. 

832  Quoted  in  Education,  Spencer,  H.     New  York,  1900,  p.  80. 

333  Evolution  and  Ethics,  op.  cit.,  p.  85. 

334  I.  Corinthians,  IX.,  27. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  111 

with  its  two  principles  and  their  disproportionate  strength, 
demands  that  if  man  is  to  live  rationally  the  physical  nature 
must  be  curbed.  The  Christian  evaluation  of  asceticism  is 
well  stated  by  Doctor  Foerster:  "Asceticism  should  be  re- 
garded, not  as  a  negation  of  nature  nor  as  an  attempt  to  extir- 
pate natural  forces,  but  as  practice  in  the  art  of  self-disci- 
pline."535 It  is  a  necessary  means  to  acquire  self-control,  and 
thereby  attain  inner  freedom  in  the  ethical  realm  where  the 
motive  is  purely  rational. 

In  the  religious  life,  where  the  obligation  is  binding  to  tend 
to  perfection,  the  ascetic  principle  is  in  high  favor.  The  virtues 
which  are  the  object  of  the  vows,  poverty,  chastity,  and  obedi- 
ence, call  for  a  sacrifice  of  self  which  compels  the  religious  to 
continuous  effort.  But  the  motive  here  is  higher  than  ethical ; 
it  springs  from  the  love  of  God  Whom  the  soul  has  espoused 
in  Jesus  Christ.  Behold  the  difference  that  is  made  in  the 
moral  life  by  the  introduction  of  the  religious  element !  In  the 
words  of  Martineau,  the  whole  spirit  of  the  character  of  duty 
becomes  transformed:  "With  the  opening  of  the  heavens,  a 
great  redemption  comes,  and  by  presenting  an  infinite  object 
of  personal  affection,  converts  the  life  of  Duty  into  the  life 
of  Love,  and  reinforces  the  individual  will  by  the  'Spirit  that 
beareth  witness  with  our  spirit,  that  we  are  the  children  of 
God.'  "336  It  arouses  aspiration  and  effort  to  do  far  more  than 
is  required  by  the  moral  law,  which  leaves  scope  for  the  gener- 
ous nature.  It  is  the  great  moving  power  urging  the  soul  on 
to  the  perfection  of  charity  by  the  most  perfect  means;  namely, 
the  Evangelical  Counsels  of  poverty,337  chastity,338  and 
obedience. 

Historically,  the  conditions  of  the  state  of  perfection  were 
given  by  Our  Lord  in  the  Counsels.  From  the  same  source  is 
derived  the  value  which  the  religious  places  upon  renunciation 
and  mortification,  which  were  never  elevated  by  the  Church  to 
ends,  but  used  merely  as  means  either  of  reparation  for  the 
abuse  of  God's  gifts  or  of  discipline  to  keep  the  heart  from 


335  Foerster,  F.  W.,  op.  cit.,  p.  128.     (The  italics  are  the  author's.) 

336  Martineau,  James,  A  Story  of  Religion,  op.  cit.,  p.  26. 

337  Matthew,  XIX,  21. 

338  Matthew,  XIX,  12. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

created  things  for  God.  "It  is  a  blessed  gift  of  the  divine 
bounty  that  not  only  can  we  render  satisfaction  to  God  for  our 
sins  by  penitential  works  of  our  own  choosing,  .  .  .  but 
also  that  the  painful  visitations  of  providence,  if  we  but  pati- 
ently bear  them,  may  by  our  union  with  Christ  Jesus  avail 
with  God  the  Father  to  the  same  end."339  This  decree  of  the 
Council  of  Trent  is  typical  of  the  Church's  teaching  from  her 
foundation.  Self-restraint  and  self-denial  are  necessary,  but 
"our  object  must  be  for  every  sacrifice  to  bring  into  the  con- 
sciousness clear  equivalents  of  a  higher  description,  so  that 
there  is  no  crucifixion  without  a  resurrection."340  One's  energy 
and  zeal,  made  patient  and  tender  by  the  love  of  God,  flow  out 
in  channels  of  service  to  one's  neighbor. 

The  common  life  in  which  the  strength  of  the  religious  insti- 
tute consists  scarcely  existed,  at  least  as  an  openly  acknowl- 
edged institution,  until  the  freedom  of  the  Church  was  granted 
by  Constantine.  From  the  beginning  of  the  infant  Church  there 
had  been  a  small  following  of  the  Apostles  of  those  who  prac- 
ticed monastic  discipline.  Saint  Paul  spoke  of  widows  and 
virgins,  whom  he  praised  for  their  devotion  to  the  things  of 
the  Lord.841  Saint  Cyprian,  in  the  third  century,  termed  the 
virgins,  brides  of  Christ.342  Religious  obedience  in  the  strict 
sense  began  with  the  cenobitic  life  founded  by  Saint  Pachomius 
at  Tabennae,  on  the  Nile,  in  the  year  325,343  and  the  observance 
of  the  three  Evangelical  Counsels  date  from  his  time.  At  the 
end  of  the  fourth  century  Saint  Athanasius,  Saint  Basil,  Saint 
Chrysostum,  Saint  Gregory  Nazianzen,  and  Saint  Gregory  of 
Nyssa  had  encouraged  and  promoted  monastic  life  in  the  East. 
Saint  Ambrose,  Saint  Jerome,  and  Saint  Augustine  were  no 
less  zealous  in  promoting  it  in  the  West.344  Monasteries  sprang 
up  rapidly  and  vigorously,  and  became  a  providential  mis- 
sionary agency,  offering  a  system  of  social  service.  From  the 
middle  of  the  fifth  century  the  cenobitic  institutes  occupied, 
one  after  another,  every  province  of  the  Koman  Empire.  They 


339  Con.  Trid.  sess.,  XIV.,  cap.,  IX. 

340  Foerster,  F.  W.,  op.  cit.,  p.  121. 
841  Romans,  XVI,  1-15. 

342  Cf.  Allies,  T.  W.,  The  Monastic  Life.     London,  1896,  p.  89. 

343  Cf .  Ibid.,  p.  87. 

344  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  98. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  113 

were  encamped  on  the  frontiers,  waiting  and  prepared  to  con- 
vert the  barbarians.345  But,  although  there  had  been  vast  num- 
bers leading  the  cenobitic  life,  among  them  illustrious  saints, 
until  the  days  of  Saint  Benedict,  there  had  been  no  Religious 
Orders.  He  imposed  upon  the  monks  of  his  convent  the  vow  of 
stability  or  perpetual  residence,  an  important  innovation  and 
one  of  the  principal  guarantees  of  the  permanence  and  strength 
of  community  life.346  His  Eule,  which  was  written  not  to  found 
an  institute  but  to  regulate  the  operation  of  one  already  in 
existence,347  enjoined  some  useful  work  upon  each  monk.  It 
contained  instructions  regarding  the  teaching  of  youth,  the 
copying  of  manuscripts,  and  the  method  of  discharging  of  duties 
of  various  offices,  e.  g.,  "those  who  were  skilled  in  the  practice 
of  an  art  or  trade  could  only  exercise  it  by  permission  of  the 
abbot,  in  all  humility;  and  if  any  one  prided  himself  on  his 
talent  or  the  profit  which  resulted  from  it  to  the  house  he  was 
to  have  his  occupation  changed  until  he  had  humbled  himself. 
Those  who  were  charged  with  selling  the  product  of  the  work 
of  these  select  laborers  could  take  nothing  from  the  price  to 
the  detriment  of  the  monastery,  nor  could  they  raise  it  avari- 
ciously; they  were  to  sell  at  less  cost  than  the  secular  work- 
men to  give  the  greater  glory  to  God."348 

The  intrinsic  force  of  the  monastic  life,  as  well  as  its  apti- 
tude for  the  time  in  which  it  appeared,  is  forcibly  shown  by  its 
achievements  as  related  in  the  following  statement:  uThe 
monks  carried  the  banner  of  culture  and  civilization  to  the 
distant  regions  of  the  earth.  They  were  the  apostles  of  Chris- 
tianity, not  only  in  the  West,  but  also  in  Asia  and  in  the  newly 
discovered  regions  of  the  globe.  Their  foundations  opened  the* 
way  for  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  for  the  laying  out  of  colonies, 
villages,  and  towns.  The  monks  cleared  forests,  drained 
swamps  and  planted  them,  controlled  rivers,  recovered  fruitful 
land  by  the  building  of  dams,  gave  an  impetus  to  cattle-raising, 
to  agriculture,  and  to  industry,  and  trained  in  these  pursuits 


345  Cf .  Montalembert,  The  Monks  of  the  West.     London,  1861-1879,  Vol.  II, 
p.  257-72. 

846  Ibid.,  pp.  57,  58. 

347  Cf.  Allies,  T.  W.,  op.  cit.,  p.  125. 

348  Rule,  Chaptei,  LVII,  quoted  in  Monks  of  the  West.,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  II,  pp. 
46-47. 


114  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

the  colonists,  whom  they  habituated  to  a  fixed  dwelling  place 
and  to  regulated  labor.  They  introduced  the  cultivation  of 
fruits  and  vegetables,  they  built  mills  and  forges,  made  streets 
and  bridges,  promoted  trade  and  commerce.  They  prepared 
the  way  for  the  class  of  free  hand-workers,  and  in  so  doing 
favored  the  development  of  city  government.  They  united  the 
hand- workers  in  fraternal  societies  and  guilds,  and  made  a 
point  of  favoring  their  material  advance  through  appropriate 
means.  The  cloisters  practiced  hospitality,  care  of  the  sick, 
and  works  of  charity;  wherever  the  opportunity  was  offered, 
they  erected  schools  and  colleges,  hospitals,  and  inns,  and  took 
in  travelers  who  had  lost  their  way.  Great  have  been  their 
services  to  the  arts  and  sciences.  Without  the  cloisters,  many 
cities  and  countries  would  be  without  those  buildings  and 
art  treasures  which  today  call  forth  the  admiration  of  the 
cultured.  The  monks  formed  valuable  libraries,  and  through 
their  unceasing  industry  in  the  scriptoria  in  making  copies, 
which  they  often  illuminated  with  beautiful  miniatures, 
they  preserved  the  priceless  literary  monuments  which  today 
link  us  with  the  culture  of  the  distant  past.  They  were  the 
historians  of  their  time.  They  left  many  valuable  sources 
of  the  Old  High  German  tongue;  they  cultivated  poetry  and 
song,  won  for  themselves  a  good  name  by  their  knowledge  of 
lands,  peoples  and  languages,  mathematics,  astronomy,  and 
the  science  of  diplomacy.  They  attempted  natural  philosophy 
and  medicine.  But  it  was  especially  theology  that  through  the 
Orders  experienced  beneficial  attention  and  progress.  Brother- 
hoods copied  and  distributed  a  kind  of  popular  literature,  and 
after  the  invention  of  printing  applied  themselves  to  the  print- 
ing of  books.  The  care  of  souls  formed  another  branch  of  the 
comprehensive  activity  of  the  Orders.  Attention  was  also  givei) 
to  prisoners,  and  especially  to  slaves,  for  whose  redemption 
from  captivity  special  Orders  arose.  From  the  Orders  also  came 
many  martyrs,  and  many  of  the  members  have  been  beatified 
or  canonized."349 

The  achievements  of  the  monks  are  of  the  utmost  relevance 
in  estimating  the  socializing  influence  of  the  religious  congrega- 

349  Heimbucher,    M.   J.,    Die   Orden   und   Congregationen   der    Katholischen 
Kirche,  op.  cit.,  pp.  05,  66. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  115 

lions.  As  missionaries  the  monks  presented  an  inspiring  spec- 
tacle of  men  who  had  given  up  selfish  ambitions ;  their  sincerity 
and  unselfishness  made  a  deep  impression  upon  the  rude  peoples 
about  them.  The  victory  of  the  Christian  faith  over  the  estab 
lished  religions  of  the  world  is  attributed  in  no  small  measure 
to  the  effect  of  the  purity  of  life  and  self-denial  of  the  monks. 
Gibbon  says :  "Their  serious  and  sequestered  life,  averse  to  the 
gay  luxury  of  the  age,  inured  them  to  the  chastity,  temperance, 
economy,  and  all  the  sober  and  domestic  virtues.  As  the  greater 
number  were  of  some  trade  or  profession,  it  was  incumbent  on 
them,  by  the  strictest  integrity  and  fairest  dealing,  to  remove 
the  suspicions  which  the  profane  are  too  apt  to  conceive  against 
the  appearance  of  sanctity.  The  contempt  of  the  world  exer- 
cised them  in  the  habits  of  humility,  meekness,  and  patience. 
The  more  they  were  persecuted,  the  more  they  adhered  to  each 
other.  This  mutual  charity  and  unsuspecting  confidence  has 
been  remarked  by  infidels,  and  was  too  often  abused  by  perfidi- 
ous friends."350 

Historians  are  unanimous  in  their  recognition  of  the  prac- 
tical good  that  the  monastic  system  achieved  in  various  lines 
throughout  the  Middle  Ages.  The  monasteries  were  always 
schools  of  labor,  in  which  the  day  was  divided  into  work  and 
prayer.351  They  were  schools  of  charity  for  the  poor  and  for 
travelers  and  pilgrims  passing  by.  The  social  conditions  of  the 
time  were  harsh  and  cruel  even  to  the  point  of  brutality.  The 
religious  endeavored  to  lay  the  foundation  of  the  social  order 
by  giving  the  example  of  kindness,  meekness,  and  charity. 
Lecky  says :  "Every  monastery  became  a  center  of  charity.  By 
the  monks,  the  nobles  were  overawed,  the  poor  protected,  the 
sick  tended,  travelers  sheltered,  prisoners  ransomed,  the  re- 
motest spheres  of  suffering  explored.  During  the  darkest 
period  of  the  Middle  Ages  monks  founded  a  refuge  for  pilgrims 
amid  the  horrors  of  the  Alpine  snows.  .  .  .  When  the 
hideous  disease  of  leprosy  extended  its  ravages  over  Europe, 
when  the  minds  of  men  were  filled  with  terror,  not  only  by  its 
loathsomeness  and  its  contagion,  but  also  by  the  notion  that  it 
was  in  a  peculiar  sense  supernatural,  new  hospitals  and 

350  Gibbon,  E.,   The  Decline  and  Fall.     London,  1838,  Vol.  II,  pp.  318-19. 

351  Cf.  Montalembert,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  II,  p.  46. 


116  Pedagogical   Value   of   Willingness 

refuges  overspread  Europe  and  monks  flocked  in  multitudes  to 
serve  in  them."352  Neither  Gibbon  nor  Lecky  was  disposed  to 
exaggerate  the  beneficent  work  of  the  monks.  Their  sense  of 
justice  compelled  each  of  them  to  recognize  the  monasteries  as 
great  social  institutions,  exerting  a  socializing  influence  upon 
the  people.  These  great  humanizing  centers  remained  inviolate 
and  flourished  throughout  the  wars  and  conquests  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  the  monks  leading  men  to  virtue  by  their  own  sincerity 
and  self-surrender.  The  testimony  of  history  shows  unquali- 
fiedly that  renunciation  was  the  great  secret  of  their  achieve- 
ment in  behalf  of  social  relationships;  that  renunciation,  in- 
spired by  the  love  of  God  and  flowing  out  in  love  of  neighbor, 
developed  their  capacity  for  self-sacrifice  and  self-devotion  and 
their  ability  to  "spend  and  be  spent"353  themselves  in  service. 
The  quality  of  self-surrender  which  characterized  the  religious 
life  of  which  Gibbon  and  Lecky  wrote  is  just  as  essential  for 
the  religious  life  of  the  present  day  as  it  was  in  mediaeval 
times.  This  state  of  life  should  justify  its  existence  now,  as 
then,  by  the  high  quality  of  service  which  it  renders. 

The  primary  aim  of  every  religious  congregation  is  the  per- 
sonal sanctification  of  its  members.354  The  secondary  end  of 
every  teaching  religious  congregation  is  education,  either  ele- 
mentary, secondary,  or  collegiate,  or  all  three  phases  of  the 
work.  "The  principal  end  or  purpose  must  be  clearly  distin- 
guished from  the  secondary  end  proper  to  each  institution."353 
The  secondary  purpose  gives  the  reason  of  the  existence  of  the 
individual  congregation  and  bears  the  relation  to  the  primary 
purpose  of  means  to  end.  If  the  end  is  attained,  it  is  by  the 
proper  use  of  the  means.  Therefore,  if  a  person  enters  a  teach- 
ing community  to  accomplish  her  personal  sanctification,  she 
is  under  the  hypothetical  necessity  of  entering  seriously  upon 
the  high  responsibility  of  the  teacher's  task.  The  consciousness 
of  having  assumed  the  work  as  a  life  profession,  out  of  appre- 
ciation of  its  possibilities,  is  a  perennial  influence,  stimulating 
to  a  professional  preparation  which  will  help  to  give  the  critical 


352  Lecky,  W.  E.,  History  of  European  Morals.     New  York,  1879,  Vol.  II, 
p.  84. 

363  II  Corinthians,  XII,  15. 

364  Cf.  Normae,  Rome,  1901,  Art.  XLII. 
355  Cf.  ibid. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  117 

insight  to  discriminate  between  educational  methods  that  are 
merely  traditional  and  those  that  are  based  upon  scientifically 
tested  data.  The  consciousness  of  her  vocation  to  help  to  the 
uttermost  that  God's  plan  for  His  world  may  be  realized  is  a 
perennial  reminder  and  stimulus  to  endeavor  to  attain  that 
power  which  comes  from  mastery  of  her  work  based  on  knowl- 
edge. The  function  of  education  "is  not  merely  to  keep  us  from 
falling,  nor  is  it  to  help  us  to  become  proper ;  it  is  to  teach  us 
to  love  God  with  all  our  hearts  and  strength  and  mind,  and  our 
neighbors  as  ourselves.  ...  In  the  work  of  education  you 
enter  on  a  grand  enterprise,  a  search  for  the  Holy  Grail,  which 
will  bring  you  to  strange  lands  and  perilous  seas."356  Arch- 
bishop Spalding  says :  "The  teacher  is  no  longer  a  pedagogue, 
but  a  cooperator  with  God  for  the  regeneration  of  the  world."387 
"Quilibet  tenetur  servare  spectantia  ad  statute  suum"  is  a 
fundamental  principle.  When  anyone  enters  upon  a  state  of 
life  he  assumes  the  duties  that  belong  to  it. 

//.    The  Teacher  Training 

In  this  study  we  cannot  keep  too  persistently  in  mind  the 
thought  that  the  specific  purpose  of  our  inquiry  is  to  discover 
which  type  of  school,  the  State  school  or  the  Catholic  school, 
is  best  equipped,  by  virtue  of  the  training  of  its  teachers,  to 
promote  disinterestedness.  This  word  is  not  used  as  a  blanket 
term,  but  with  the  definite  content  of  personal  responsibility  to 
the  community  and  such  a  willingness  to  serve  its  interests  as 
will  result  in  action.  It  is  equivalent  to  the  quality  cultivated 
by  the  study  of  Community  Civics,  "whose  significance  does  not 
lie  in  its  geographical  implication,  but  in  its  implication  of 
community  relations,  of  a  community  of  interests.  ...  It 
is  a  question  of  a  point  of  view,  and  community  civics  applies 
this  point  of  view  to  the  study  of  the  national  community  as 
well  as  to  the  study  of  the  local  community."358  It  is  impor- 
tant that  this  purpose  be  kept  permanently  in  consciousness 
during  the  discussion.  The  study,  viewed  from  this  aspect, 


366  Wallace,  William,  op.  cit.,  pp.  209,  210.  Quoted  by  Smith,  H.  B.,  in 
Education  as  the  Training  of  Personality.  Manchester,  1913,  p.  32. 

357  "Development  of  Educational  Ideals,"  Congress  of  Arts  and  Sciences, 
Vol.  VIII,  op.  cit.t  p.  31. 

88  s  ?mc  Education  Circular,  No.  1,  Bureau  of  Education. 


118  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

resolves  itself  into  an  examination  of  the  training  received  by 
the  religious  teacher  as  a  postulant  and  novice,  to  see  how  far- 
she  unconsciously  and  almost  necessarily  becomes  permeated 
with  the  spirit  of  community  interest  and  community  responsi- 
bility. The  novitiate,  inasmuch  as  it  trains  the  religious 
teacher,  parallels  the  normal  school  in  its  preparation  of  the 
State  teacher. 

The  candidate  for  a  religious  congregation  enters  preliminary 
training  for  a  term  varying  from  six  months  to  a  year,  accord- 
ing to  the  constitutions  of  that  congregation.  The  time  may  be 
extended  not  more  than  three  months  longer  than  the  const  \ 
tutions  prescribe.359  During  this  preliminary  term  of  postu- 
lantship  the  candidate,  known  as  a  postulant,  lives  according 
to  the  regime  of  religious  life  which  puts  her  in  touch  with  the 
main  features  of  community  life,  enabling  her  to  get  an  insight 
into  the  spirit  and  daily  life  of  the  convent  conjointly  with  he. 
training,  so  that  if  she  enters  religious  life  it  may  be  with  the 
knowledge  derived  from  observation  of  the  daily  order  of  that 
life  and  after  due  reflection.  It  affords  the  community  an 
equal  opportunity  to  judge  the  fitness  of  the  candidate  for  the 
common  life.  "Not  only  certainty  of  a  candidate's  lack  of  voca- 
tion, but  even  an  acute  doubt  about  it,  should  cause  his  dis- 
missal. .  .  .  Close  observation  persuades  one  that  the  ex- 
clusion of  unfit  subjects  is  the  prime  duty  of  novice  masters 
rather  than  the  admission  of  worthy  ones.  .  .  .  The  door 
of  the  house  of  novices  should  swing  outward  more  easily  than 
inward."360 

Saint  Benedict  directed  that  the  greatest  care  be  exercised 
to  acquaint  the  candidate  with  the  nature  and  obligations  of 
the  life,  so  that  no  vow  would  be  taken  lightly  nor  unfit  candi 
dates  be  received  into  the  Order.    According  to  his  Rule,  after 
a  few  days'  probation  the  candidate  is  admitted  into  the  noviti 
ate  and  entrusted  to  the  care  of  the  novice  master,  who  studies 
the   candidate's  character,   and   especially   the  marks  of  his 
vocation,  and  tells  him  of  the  difficulties  which  one  may  meet  in 


.  .  369  Cf.  Normae,  op.  tit.,  Art.  LXV. 

360  Elliott,  Walter,  The  Spiritual  Life.  New  York,  1914,  p.  33.  "Pray 
give  particular  attention  to  what  I  am  about  to  add;  be  very  severe,  I  would 
almost  say  fastidious,  in  choosing  persons  to  be  received  into  the  society." 
(Saint  Francis  Xavier  quoted  by  Father  Elliott,  ibid.,  p.  84.) 


Pedagogical  Value  o/   Willingness  119 

religion.  If,  after  two  months,  it  appears  that  he  would  remain 
steadfast,  the  entire  Rule  is  read  to  him,  and  the  readling  con- 
cludes with  the  words:  "Behold  the  law  under  which  thou 
wouldst  fight;  if  thou  canst  observe  it,  enter;  if  thou  canst  not, 
depart  in  freedom."  In  six  months  it  is  read  again,  and  after 
an  interval  of  four  months  more,  a  third  reading  is  completed. 
At  the  expiration  of  the  year,  if  the  novice  perseveres,  he  takes 
the  vow  of  obedience,  which  includes  the  vow  of  poverty  and 
chastity.361  This  Rule  is  observed  substantially  by  Benedictine 
Communities  of  Women.  Every  community  makes  serious 
endeavors  to  give  the  postulant  a  thorough  understanding 
of  the  religious  life  before  she  is  formally  admitted  to  the 
congregation. 

At  the  expiration  of  this  preliminary  term  the  postulant  is 
received  to  the  religious  habit.  The  religious  training  then 
begins  in  its  fullness.  Saint  Benedict  calls  the  novitiate  the 
School  of  the  Lord's  Service.362  The  general  entrance  require- 
ments are  fixed  by  the  Sacred  Congregation  of  Regulars.363 
Chiefly  they  are  these : 

1.  A  true  vocation,  proceeding  from  a  supernatural  end.    In- 
trinsically, the  vocation  is  the  earnest  desire  of  perfection 
attained  by  ways  of  the  Counsels  which  the  novice  begins  to 
observe  in  the  novitiate.    Therefore,  although  she  retains  own- 
ership of  her  possessions  during  the  novitiate,  she  is  required 
to  practice  renunciation  of  the  use  of  them.     She  practices 
perfect  obedience  to  a  superior  conformably  to  the  rule  and 
constitutions  of  the  congregation. 

2.  Sound  bodily  health.    The  religious  should  be  able  phys- 
ically to  conform  to  the  mode  of  living  in  community  life  and 
to  be  of  active  service. 

3.  Good  morals  and  good  reputation.    The  candidate  should 
be  already  formed  to  the  practice  of  ordinary  virtues.     The 
Counsels  without  the  basis  of  the  Commandments  are  useless. 
Their  faithful  observance  is  impossible  without  the  wrill  to  obey 
and  to  love  God.     The  decree  Ecclesia  Christi,  1909,  by  the 


361  Cf.  Rule  of  Saint  Benedicct,  translated  by  \7erheyen,  B.,  Atchison,  Kan- 
sas, 1912,  pp.  127-28. 

3«2  cf.  "The  Prologue,"  Rule,  op.  cit.,  p.  7. 
863  Cf.  Normae,  op.  cit.,  Arts.  LVI,  LVII. 


120  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

declaration  of  1910,  invalidates,  without  the  dispensation  of  the 
Holy  See,  the  admission  to  a  religious  congregation  of  any 
person  who  for  grave  reason  has  been  expelled  from  college.364 

4.  Freedom  from  all  binding  obligations,  whether  of  vow  or 
of  those  derived  from  the  natural  law.    Accordingly,  candidates 
whose  parents  are  really  in  need  may  not  embrace  the  religious 
life.365 

5.  The  minimum  and  maximum  ages  of  fifteen  and  thirty 
years,  respectively,  except  by  dispensation  of  the  Holy  See.366 
The  psychologist  recognizes  the  wisdom  of  this  ruling.     The 
character  of  the  adolescent  under  fifteen  is  still  emotionally 
and  volitionally  unstable  and  wanting  in  the  basis  of  experience 
to  make  a  decision  of  lifelong  consequences.  On  the  other  hanrl , 
the  adult  over  thirty  has  lost  much  of  the  mental  plasticity 
essential  to  the  adjustment  of  the  self  to  the  reactions  of  group 
life.    The  concepts  and  habits  formed  in  the  novitiate  should 
have  a  permanence  usually  not  acquired  after  the  age  of  thirty. 

6.  In  addition  to  the  qualifications  required  by  the  Sacred 
Congregation  of  Eegulars,  most  of  the  congregations  add  the 
requirement  of  ability  to  fulfill  some  one  of  the  offices  pertain- 
ing to  the  work  of  the  community. 

No  minimum  scholastic  requirements  have  been  fixed.  The 
congregations  furnish  academic  training  to  the  candidate,  both 
as  a  postulant  and  novice,  and  some  continue  to  give  training 
one  or  two  years  after  the  religious  has  made  her  profession, 
depending  upon  conditions.  As  yet  there  is  no  single  set  of 
standards  of  minimum  requirements  for  teachers.  As  indices 
of  the  advancement  of  working  standards,  it  is  the  policy  of 
certain  dioceses367  to  require  as  minimum  scholastic  qualifica- 
tions a  four-year  high  school  course  or  its  equivalent.  In  line 
with  the  trend  of  this  policy,  some  congregations  are  tending 
toward  the  adoption  of  the  same  requirements  for  their  teachers. 

One  complete  and  continuous  year  of  novitiate  is  required  as 
preparation  for  valid  profession.368  Some  congregations,  how- 


364  Cf.   Lanslots,   D.  I.f  Handbook  of  Canon  Law.     New  York,   1911,  pp. 
52-53. 

366  Cf.  Normae,  Arts.  LVI,  LVII. 

366  Cf.  Council  of  Trent,  Sess.  XXV.,  C.  5.     Normae,  Art.  LXI. 

367  The  diocese  of  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

»»  Council  of  Trent,  Sess.  XXV,  C.  5.     Normae,  Art.  LXXII. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  121 

ever,  have  a  two-year  novitiate.  Where  such  obtains,  the  first 
year  is  the  canonical  year,  devoted  entirely  to  manual  work, 
spiritual  instruction,  and  prayer;  the  second  year  is  given  to 
spiritual  instruction  and  study.  In  the  one-year  novitiate  the 
day  is  divided  into  manual  work,  study,  spiritual  instruction, 
and  prayer.  While  we  have  reasonably  adequate  knowledge  of 
conditions,  there  is  little  opportunity  of  discriminating  investi- 
gation regarding  the  facts.  The  data  lack  a  certain  scientific 
accuracy,  but  they  represent  the  practical  working  conditions 
of  this  vitally  important  teacher-training  function  of  the 
novitiate. 

At  the  end  of  the  novitiate  training,  if  the  novice  is  convinced 
that  her  vocation  is  the  religious  life,  that  she  has  the  desire 
and  capacity  for  sacrifice  that  will  enable  her  to  conform  to  its 
requirements,  and  fitness  for  the  work  of  the  community  to 
which  she  has  come;  and  if  the  congregation  has  reasonable 
assurance  that  she  has  the  sacrificial  spirit  and  the  physical 
and  mental  competence  necessary  for  the  work  of  a  religious, 
she  makes  her  profession.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  community 
finds  her  wanting  in  such  dispositions  or  in  requisite  ability,  it 
is  its  important  duty  to  decline  to  admit  her  to  profession. 
Regarding  the  obligation  of  religious  to  be  vigilant  in  sifting 
new  members  on  the  basis  of  earnestness  and  the  sacrificial 
spirit,  the  Dominican  Chapter  of  Ghent,  A.  D.  1871,  issued  the 
following  admonition:  "Considering  the  special  need  there  is 
in  our  day  of  prudent  severity  in  the  admission  of  subjects  to 
religion,  we  exhort  all  those  who  have  a  right  to  vote  for  the 
profession  of  novices  to  admit  to  profession  none  but  those  who 
are  worthy  and  approved.  They  should  have  but  one  thing  only 
before  their  eyes  in  giving  their  votes,  namely,  whether  the 
novice  in  question  has  shown  such  clear  and  manifest  signs  of 
a  true  and  Divine  vocation  and  of  fidelity  in  walking  worthy 
of  it,  that  she  may  be  safely  admitted  to  profession ;  if  not,  she 
ought  either  to  be  sent  back  to  the  world  or  at  least  her  profes- 
sion should  be  deferred,  as  shall  seem  best  in  the  Lord."369 

The  novitiate  training  contributes  to  both  the  mental  and 
the  moral  equipment  of  the  teacher.    The  academic  curriculum 


369  Quoted  in  the  Constitutions  of  the  Sisters  of  Saint  Dominic.     Chicago, 
1889,  p.  137. 


122  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

parallels  closely  the  curriculum  of  the  State  normal  school, 
except  in  regard  to  the  subject  of  religion.  In  the  novitiate 
religious  instruction  finds  place  in  the  daily  schedule,  giving 
(scope  for  the  development  of  the  entire  personality  of  the 
student  and  the  expression  of  the  future  personality  of  the 
teacher.  There  is  avoided,  therefore,  the  threefold  educational 
fallacy  which  follows  from  the  exclusion  of  religion  of  (1) 
dividing  the  historical  content  of  culture  into  parts  and  assum- 
ing that  these  parts  can  be  communicated  independently  of  each 
other;  (2)  dividing  the  pupil  into  parts  and  assuming  that  these 
parts  can  be  developed  independently  of  each  other;  (3)  divid- 
ing the  teacher  into  parts  and  assuming  that  certain  elements 
of  her  culture  can  be  kept  out  of  class.  The  novitiate  leaves 
the  teacher  free  to  give  utterance  to  her  deepest  and  most 
significant  convictions.  The  instructors  in  the  academic  sub- 
jects pursued  by  the  novices  are  selected  from  the  congregation 
for  their  competence  in  character  forming,  as  well  as  for  ability 
to  give  academic  and  professional  training.  Experienced 
teachers  are  appointed  to  the  supremely  important  work  of 
preparing  the  young  religious  in  both  the  cultural  and  profes- 
sional courses  for  teaching. 

The  training  of  the  novices  is  entrusted  to  the  novice  mistress, 
usually  an  experienced  religious  distinct  from  the  local  supe- 
rior. To  direct  the  altruism  and  idealism  of  these  candidates 
into  channels  of  high  service  is  her  opportunity  and  her  obliga- 
tion. This  office  is  regarded  as  incomparably  responsible,  and 
certain  qualifications  requisite  in  the  incumbent  are  specified 
in  the  constitutions  of  every  congregation.  The  personality  of 
any  teacher  is  an  incalculably  important  factor  in  the  char- 
acter forming  of  students.  The  novitiate  is  a  time  for  the 
novices  to  lay  the  basis  for  living  increasingly  in  the  true  reali- 
ties of  life ;  to  form  themselves  to  sacrifice  self  in  the  service  of 
God  and  of  their  neighbor;  a  fortiori  the  personality  of  the 
novice  mistress  is  of  the  utmost  importance  as  an  example  to 
the  novices.  "The  teacher's  masterpiece  of  art  should  be  her 
own  self."370  The  novice  mistress  exercises  a  kind  of  apostolate 
among  the  novices.  She  forms  them  upon  the  lines  of  the 


870  Elliott,  W.,  op.  cit.,  p.  326. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  123 

interior  life.  There  are  selfish  habits  to  be  broken  and  sacri- 
ficial habits  to  be  formed,  views  to  be  enlarged,  convictions  to 
be  deepened,  and,  above  and  beyond  all,  the  foundations  of 
sincerity  and  integrity  are  to  be  made  deep  and  secure  as  the 
basis  of  the  virtues  of  the  religious  life.  The  character  of  the 
religious  teacher  should  include  two  sets  of  virtues:  (1)  the 
human  or  natural  virtues  of  sincerity,  justice,  and  a  certain 
delicacy  or  savoir-vivre,  but  all  commanded  and  sustained  by  a 
force  of  character  whose  backbone  is  strength  of  will;  (2)  the 
Christian  virtues  of  poverty,  mortification,  and  humility,371 
which  lie  beyond  the  natural  virtues,  inasmuch  as  reason  and 
will,  unassisted  by  divine  grace,  are  unable  to  acquire  them. 
Reason  needs  the  supernatural  light  of  faith  to  open  the  mind 
to  the  virtues  which  Christ  taught,  and  the  will  needs  the  lever 
of  divine  love  to  lift  itself  to  the  practice  of  them,  since  they 
are  radically  opposed  to  man's  natural  impulses.  The  cultiva- 
tion of  these  virtues  lessens  proportionately  the  strength  of  the 
threefold  temptations,  the  concupiscence  of  the  eyes  and  of  the 
flesh,  and  the  pride  of  life,372  which  constitute  the  three  ob- 
stacles to  the  personal  union  of  the  soul  with  God.  The  removal 
of  these  barriers  tends  to  starve  the  self-seeking  impulse. 
Starve  an  impulse,  and  it  dies  is  a  psychological  principle.  As 
one  is  released  from  the  captivity  of  self,  one  gains  true  free- 
dom which  enlarges  the  heart  for  sympathy  and  endows 
the  will  with  power  for  service.  This  is  the  essence  of 
disinterestedness. 

From  the  day  that  the  novice  enters  the  novitiate  she  begins 
to  practice  the  virtue  of  poverty,  which  consists  in  the  renun- 
ciation of  the  use  of  her  possessions  and  her  affection  for  them. 
At  the  expiration  of  the  novitiate  term  she  takes  the  vow  of 
poverty,  which  leads  to  the  virtue  that  she  has  been  learning 
to  practice  in  its  two  vital  elements.  These  are  the  sacrifice 
accomplished  by  the  renunciation  of  her  possessions  and  the 
motive  of  the  sacrifice  which  is  the  love  of  God. 

Approaching  it  from  the  educational  viewpoint,  it  is  our 
purpose  to  examine  the  obligation  that  voluntary  poverty  lays 
upon  the  religious  that  we  may  make  such  an  analysis  of  its 


171  Cf.  Guibert,  J.,  I?*  Qualitts  de  L'Educaleur.     Paris,  1903,  pp.  30-89. 
«"  Cf.  John,  I  Epistle,  II,  16. 


124  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

elements  as  will  show  an  evaluation  of  its  contribution  to 
teacher-training  in  the  novitiate.  The  question  is:  In  what 
way,  and  to  what  degree,  does  it  prepare  the  teacher  to  commu- 
nicate the  community  spirit  to  pupils? 

''Disinterestedness,  according  to  Our  Lord,  is  ambition  disin- 
fected of  self-interest."373  Every  page  of  the  Gospels  substan- 
tiates that  statement.  To  attain  the  initiative,  buoyancy,  and 
freedom  of  spirit  that  belong  to  the  wholesome  nature  without 
the  natural  selfishness  which  is  at  the  root  of  man's  nature  is 
the  ideal  sought.  By  what  means  can  it  be  accomplished? 
Only  by  the  substitution  of  a  stronger  motive  than  that  of  deep 
seated  selfishness.  That  the  training  in  voluntary  poverty374 
and  the  common  life,  which  rests  fundamentally  upon  the 
observance  of  poverty,  furnishes  such  a  substitute  is  the  thesis 
to  be  proved. 

Since  the  virtue  of  poverty  conditions  the  existence  of  the 
common  life,  the  vow  and  virtue  of  poverty  have  both  a  personal 
and  a  social  value.  As  between  the  personal  end  of  education 
and  the  social  end  there  is  no  inherent  contradiction,  but  rather 
a  supplementary  relationship,375  so  the  personal  and  social 
values  of  the  poverty  of  a  religious  reinforce  each  other.  The 
personal  value  lies  in  its  power  to  develop  the  character  of  the 
teacher;  the  social  value  lies  in  its  potency  to  develop  com- 
munity interest  and  the  spirit  of  neighborly  service. 

The  poverty  of  the  religious  is  the  foundation  of  religious 
perfection.  It  strikes  at  the  root  of  character  and  demands 
sincerity  of  heart.  External  renunciation  is  a  mockery  unless 
there  be  interior  detachment.  Saint  Teresa  told  her  Sisters 
that  if,  after  having  vowed  themselves  to  practice  poverty, 
they  were  not  poor  in  spirit,  they  were  like  miserly  "rich  people 
asking  for  alms."376 

Voluntary  poverty  has  both  a  negative  and  a  positive  func- 
tion in  forming  character.  Negatively,  it  removes  one  of  the 
obstacles  that  lie  in  the  path  of  perfection.  In  the  renuncia- 


373  Elliott,  W.,  op.  cit.,  p.  238. 

374  By  voluntary  poveity  is  meant  the  free  renunciation  of  all  possessions 
and  the  right  of  ownership. 

376  Cf.  Baldwin.  J.  M.,  The  Individual  and  Society.     Boston,  1911,  Chapter  I. 
173  Cf.  Saint  Teresa,  The  Way  of  Perfection,  translated  by  Dalton.     London, 
1857,  p.  29. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  125 

tion  of  material  things  the  religious  makes  a  vigorous  attack 
upon  the  germ  of  cupidity,  which  is  the  source  of  all  spiritual 
ills.  ''The  desire  of  money  is  the  root  of  all  evils."377  The 
existence  of  evil  is  a  fact  of  experience,  and  the  problem  of  how 
best  to  deal  with  it  is  vital  and  must  be  faced.  The  principle 
of  substitution  is  invoked  and  the  virtue  of  voluntary  poverty 
becomes  the  instrument  to  effect  the  change  by  which  the 
activity  of  desire  is  directed  from  material  objects  to  spiritual 
satisfactions.  The  axe  is  laid  at  the  root  of  avarice  to  cut 
the  stem  low  and  graft  upon  the  vigorous  root  of  the  instinct  of 
self-love  the  delicate  plant  of  divine  grace  whose  fruits  are  the 
love  and  service  of  God  and  neighbor.  Saint  Augustine  says : 
"Deficiente  cupiditate,  crescente  charitate;  proficiamur  autem 
in  ilia  vita,  cupidiate  extincta,  charitate  completa"378  "As 
cupidity  or  the  love  of  created  things  diminishes,  charity  or 
the  love  of  God  increases ;  but  in  the  next  life,  cupidity  having 
been  extinguished,  charity  is  perfected."  The  energy  of  the 
deep-rooted  instinct  is  lifted  above  the  plane  of  nature,  and, 
animated  and  regulated  by  the  principle  of  charity,  flows  out 
and  functions  in  good  works.  "To  borrow  a  figure  from  Saint 
Paul,  the  fertile  olive,  which  is  Christ,  is  grafted  on  the  wild 
olive  of  the  natural  man,  to  make  the  tree  of  human  nature 
spiritually  rich  and  fertile  in  the  fruits  of  light."379  The  energy 
is  not  lost,  but  redirected  and  transformed.  It  was  never  the 
mind  of  the  Church  to  practice  self-abnegation  and  mortifica- 
tion as  ends,  but  as  means  only.  Ennobled  by  the  pure  inten- 
tion of  increasing  one's  love  of  God,  the  ascetic  principle  is 
highly  rational  and  moral.  Saint  Thomas  says  that  voluntary 
poverty,  by  which  the  individual  deprives  himself  of  owner- 
ship, is  the  first  principle  of  acquiring  charity.380  Self-love 
and  charity  are  inherently  opposed.  Self-love  is  the  moving 
principle  of  nature;  charity  is  the  moving  power  of  love.  That 
one  grows  in  charity  as  one  practices  self-denial  with  a  super- 
natural motive,  follows  from  our  Lord's  direction,  "If  any  man 
will  follow  Me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross,  and 

377 1  Timothy,  VI,  10. 

a78  "Epistle  177,"  Migne,  Patrologia  Latina.     Paris,  1846,  Vol.  XXXIII, 
p.  771. 

379  Ullathorne,  W.  B.,  The  Endowments  of  Man.     London,  1880,  p.  133. 
^  Cf.  Ila,  Ilae,  Q  LXXXVI. 


126  Pedagogical   Value  of    Willingness 

follow  Me."381  Saint  Teresa  says :  "It  is  the  nature  of  love  to 
toil  for  the  Beloved  in  a  thousand  different  ways."382  In  the 
Canticle  of  Canticles  is  written,  "If  a  man  should  give  all  the 
substance  of  his  house  for  love,  he  shall  despise  it  as  nothing."38* 
The  love  of  God  moves  one  to  regulate  legitimate  pleasures 
which  are  not  evil  in  themselves  but  whose  claims  are  so  in- 
sistent that  to  keep  the  spiritual  supreme  in  one's  life,  it  is 
necessary  to  practice  self-denial. 

The  three  degrees  of  voluntary  poverty  which  have  been  dis- 
tinguished by  the  masters  of  the  spiritual  life  are  all  levelled 
against  avarice  and  the  softness  of  creature  comforts.  They 
are  (1)  the  renunciation  of  all  temporal  goods  and  affection 
for  them;  (2)  the  renunciation  of  all  physical  comforts  and 
superfluities;  (3)  the  renunciation  of  even  necessary  things 
in  order  that,  by  the  extreme  abandonment  of  these  temporal 
goods  and  affection  for  them,  the  impediments  to  God's  free 
service  may  be  removed.  A  religious  perfectly  poor  in  spirit 
suffers  patiently  all  the  difficulties  which  are  the  inseparable 
consequences  of  her  profession,  such  as  hunger,  thirst,  cold, 
heat  and  fatigue,  without  complaining  or  seeking  mitigation  of 
them.384  "God  bestows  the  blessing  there  where  He  finds  the 
vessel  empty."385  He  Who  made  the  human  heart  knows  the  laws 
of  its  workings  and  has  revealed  them  to  man  in  His  teaching. 
Throughout  His  ministry  the  fundamental  law  of  sacrifice  re- 
curs, and  perhaps  nowhere  in  more  striking  words  than  in  the 
paradox,  "He  that  shall  lose  his  life  for  My  sake,  shall  find 
it."386  It  is  a  principle  capable  of  scientific  demonstration.  It 
is  the  principle  underlying  the  empirical  fact  that  true  self- 
development  is  attained  only  through  self-renunciation  and 
self-sacrifice.  "And  so  these  two,  self-culture  and  self-sacrifice, 
both  present  themselves  as  true  and  pressing  duties  of  a  human 
existence.  No  man  has  any  right  to  contemplate  the  life  before 
him,  no  man  has  any  right  to  be  living  at  any  moment  of  his 


381  Mark,  VIII,  34. 

382  Interior  Castle,  translated  by  the  Benedictines  of  Stanbrook.     London, 
1906,  p.  237. 

383  Canticle,  VIII,  7. 

384  Cf.  Cormier,  Hyacinthe- Marie,  O.P.,  Ulnstruction  des  Nonces.     Paris, 
1905,  pp.  394-397. 

885  a  Kempis,  T.,  Imitatio  Christi,  IV,  15. 
«•  Matthew,  XVI,  25. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  127 

life  unless  he  knows  himself  to  be  doing  all  that  he  can  to 
develop  his  soul  and  make  it  shine  with  its  peculiar  lustre  in 
the  firmament  of  existence.  And  no  man  has  a  right  to  be  living 
at  any  moment  unless  he  is  also  casting  himself  away  and 
entering  into  the  complete  and  devoted  service  of  his  fellow- 
men.  In  order  to  cultivate  himself  more  completely,  the  man 
is  to  sacrifice  himself  more  completely.  In  order  to  sacrifice 
himself  more  completely,  he  is  to  cultivate  himself  more  com- 
pletely. These  two  great  principles  of  existence  will  come  into 
harmony  with  each  other  only  when  they  pour  themselves  out 
together  and  mingle  with  each  other  and  find  themselves  a 
part  of  the  great  plan  of  God.  Self-culture  and  self-sacrifice — 
these  two  have  been  the  great  inspiring  forces  of  existence  in 
all  ages,  in  every  land."387  In  detaching  ourselves  from  tem- 
poral things,  we  render  ourselves  more  docile  to  the  truths  of 
faith.  "Why  are  some  of  the  saints  so  perfect  and  contem- 
plative? Because  they  labored  to  mortify  themselves  to  all 
earthly  desires,  and,  therefore,  they  could  with  their  whole 
heart  fix  themselves  upon  God  and  be  free  for  holy  retire- 
ment."388 But  the  love  of  God  flows  out  in  love  of  neighbor  and 
finds  expression  either  in  prayer  for  him  or  in  active  service. 
Poverty  becomes  the  means,  therefore,  of  removing  the  diffi- 
culties that  beset  the  spiritual  life.  By  retrenching  sense- 
gratifications  in  food  and  clothing  and  pleasures  that  foster 
woldliness,  it  furnishes  a  self-discipline  which  extends  to  the 
observance  of  the  other  two  vows.389  When  it  has  separated  the 
religious  from  her  possessions,  it  has  worked  unto  her  pure  and 
disinterested  love  of  God. 

The  great  desire  of  the  religious  is  to  imitate  Christ.  Vital- 
ized with  the  spirit  of  that  desire,  she  reaches  out  for  means 
by  which  she  may  resemble  Our  Lord  and  follow  Him  more 
perfectly.  The  poverty  of  her  Divine  Exemplar,  Who  had  not 
where  to  lay  His  head,390  inspires  her  with  the  longing  to 
imitate  him  in  this  quality,  which,  far  from  making  life  harsh 
and  difficult,  like  the  self-denial  of  the  Stoics,  heightens  spir 

387  Brooks.  Phillips.  Self-Culture  and  Self-Sacrifice.     Boston,  1892,  pp.  12, 
13. 

388  4  Kempis,  op.  cit.,  I,  11. 

389  Cf.  Cormier,  op.  cit.,  p.  374. 
890  Cf.  Luke.  IX.,  58. 


128  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

itual  vitality,  braces  the  soul,  and  makes  self-sacrifice  a  joy. 
She  loves  it  for  its  own  sake,  because  it  is  a  precious  bond 
between  her  and  her  Divine  Spouse. 

The  socializing  influence  of  the  vow  and  virtue  of  poverty 
is  derived  from  the  common  life  which  is  strictly  prescribed  in 
all  congregations.391  Any  effort,  therefore,  to  appraise  its 
value  as  a  factor  in  teaching-training  involves  an  inquiry  into 
this  mode  of  life  as  to  its  organization  and  the  activities,  respon- 
sibilities, and  relations  of  its  members,  with  a  view  to  deter- 
mine the  physical  and  psychological  elements  in  their  environ- 
ment which  influence  the  reactions,  intellectual,  emotional, 
and  volitional,  of  the  novices  in  training.  Postulating  the 
fundamental  principle  that  experience  differentiates  according 
to  constant  principles,  we  may  say  that  as  environmental  condi- 
tions are  stable  and  permanent,  the  reactions  will  crystallize 
into  habits.  From  the  subjective  nature  of  the  topic  under 
consideration,  however,  some  of  the  elements  are  necessarily 
hidden  and  elusive  of  analysis. 

A  religious  community  corresponds  generically  to  any  society, 
but  with  the  specific  difference  that  its  members  are  bound  to 
tend  to  perfection  according  to  the  vows  of  poverty,  chastity, 
and  obedience.392  It  is  governed  by  the  rule  and  constitutions 
of  the  congregation,  which  are  the  expression  of  the  three  vows 
reduced  to  practice,  and  which  determine  the  daily  observance 
of  the  duties  of  the  members. 

The  term  common  life  is  self-explanatory.  The  members  live 
in  community;  all  observe  the  same  rule  of  life;  all  have  in 
common  and  share  in  common  the  material  things  of  the  com- 
munity, "not  in  equal  measure,  because  all  are  not  of  equal 
strength,  but  so  as  to  provide  for  each  according  to  her  need."398 
Both  poverty  and  obedience  are  inherent  principles  of  the  com- 
mon life.  We  are  concerned  with  the  value  of  poverty  only, 
since  from  it  is  derived  logically  the  obligation  of  seeking 
always  the  common  good.  The  psychological  value  of  actual 
performance  in  order  to  gain  functional  knowledge  is  consi^ 


391  Heimbucher,  op.  cit.,  p.  37. 
3»2  Cf.  Saint  Thomas,  Ha,  Ilae,  Q  CLXXXVI. 

393  "Rule  of  Saint  Augustine,"  Book  of  Constitutions  of  the  Sisters  of  the 
Third  Order  of  Saint  Dominic,  p.  1. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  129 

tently  recognized  in  forming  the  novice  to  the  practice  of  this 
quality.  The  actual  participation  of  each  member  in  the  good 
of  the  whole  and  the  mutual  cooperation  of  all  to  secure  it 
give  both  the  point  of  view  of  disinterestedness  and  the  prac- 
tical training  in  the  virtue.  It  is  laid  upon  each  as  an  obliga- 
tion flowing  from  the  vow  of  poverty,  which  is  an  instrument 
leading  to  perfect  charity,394  to  place  the  community  advantage 
before  her  own  interest.  Saint  Augustine  says  in  his  Kule: 
"The  more  you  study  the  advantage  of  the  community  in  prefer- 
ence to  your  own,  the  more  you  may  know  that  you  advance  in 
perfection,  since  charity,  which  abideth  forever,  has  thus  the 
pre-eminence  over  those  things  which  only  supply  the  transitory 
necessities  of  this  life."395  Into  a  community  permeated  and 
dominated  by  this  principle,  the  novice  enters  upon  her  admis- 
sion into  the  religious  life.  The  opening  sentence  of  the  Kule 
of  Saint  Augustine  gives  the  keynote  of  the  spirit  of  religious 
life:  "The  first  purpose  for  which  you  have  been  brought 
together  is  that  you  dwell  in  unity  in  the  house,  and  that  you 
have  but  one  soul  and  one  heart  in  God ;  and  call  not  anything 
your  own,  but  let  all  things  be  common."396  Next  to  the  rela- 
tionships of  the  family,  probably  none  are  so  intimate  as  those 
of  the  members  of  the  same  religious  community.  These  rela- 
tionships have  both  a  social  and  a  spiritual  character.  The 
social  relationships  flow  from  daily  association  and  from  having 
in  common  and  sharing  in  common  all  the  externals  of  life  per- 
taining to  the  daily  work  and  recreation  and  to  all  the  interests 
and  responsibilities  of  the  corporate  life  of  the  community. 
The  spiritual  relationships  which  unite  the  members  are  chiefly 
two:  (1)  the  fundamental  Christian  spirit  of  charity,  animat- 
ing and  binding  all  and  urging  all  to  work  for  God's  Kingdom ; 
(2)  the  spirit  of  the  Religious  Founder  of  the  Order,  constitut- 
ing a  distinct  relationship  among  the  members  of  one  religious 
family.  The  educational  forces  of  social  cooperation  and 
mutual  helpfulness,  permeated  by  the  love  of  God,  are  continu- 
ally operative,  and  develop  in  the  individuals  a  social  spirit 
and  social  insight. 

^  Cf.  Saint  Thomas,  Ila,  Ilae,  Q  CLXXXVI,  Art.  1. 
396  Op.  ciL,  p.  11. 
396  Ibid.,  p.  1. 


130  Pedagogical   Value  of    Willingness 

The  common  life,  by  reducing  all  to  an  equality  of  condition, 
contributes  to  a  purely  democratic  spirit.  The  members  differ 
among  themselves  in  temperament,  training,  character,  and 
experience.  They  come  with  one  motive — to  attain  perfection ; 
that  is,  to  acquire  as  close  a  resemblance  to  Our  Lord  as  possi- 
ble, that  they  may  live  in  union  with  Him  in  this  world  and  in 
Heaven.  They  come  in  response  to  God's  call  to  this  state  of 
life  as  their  particular  vocation.  As  far  as  possible,  they 
remove  the  obstacles  to  the  life  of  perfection  by  renouncing 
their  claim  to  all  material  things,  their  affections,  and  their 
wills.  By  the  vow  of  poverty  they  reduce  themselves  to  the 
equality  of  non-possession,  whatever  may  have  been  their  for- 
tune in  the  world.  This  equality  extends,  moreover,  to  all 
humanity,  because  no  one  can  be  poorer  than  he  who  owns 
nothing.  A  different  set  of  values  obtains  in  religious  commu- 
nity life  from  those  in  the  commercial  world.  The  coin  current 
in  the  realm  of  the  common  life  is  self-denial.  ''Let  those 
consider  themselves  richest  who  are  the  best  able  to  bear  absti- 
nence; for  it  is  better  to  need  less  than  to  have  more."397  Saint 
Benedict  said:  "The  vice  of  personal  ownership  must,  by  all 
means,  be  cut  out  of  the  monastery  by  the  very  root,  so  that  no 
one  may  presume  to  give  or  receive  anything  without  the  com- 
mand of  the  superior  nor  to  have  anything  whatever  as  his 
own,  neither  a  book,  nor  a  writing  tablet,  nor  a  pen,  nor  any- 
thing else  whatsoever.  .  .  .  Let  all  things  be  common  to 
all,  as  it  is  written.  And  let  no  one  have  or  take  to  himself 
anything  as  his  own."398  Saint  Bernard  says :  "Nihil  appelat 
singulariter  suum  sed  ad  omnia  dicit  nostrum,  nisi  de  patre  et 
matre  et  de  peccato"3™  ("He  calls  nothing  his  own,  but  he  says 
nostrum  for  everything  except  his  father  and  mother  and  his 
sins").  Strictly  speaking,  the  words  meum  and  t-itum  do  not 
find  place  in  the  vocabulary  of  a  religious. 

Equality  in  externals  is  further  secured  and  emphasized  by 
the  religious  habit  which  members  of  communities  of  women 
are  required  to  wear;  otherwise,  they  lack  that  public  profes- 
sion which  characterizes  the  religious  state  in  the  sight  of  the 


397  Rule  of  Saint  Augustine,  op.  cit.,  p.  5. 

398  Rule,  op.  cit.,  pp.  82,  83. 

399  Veins  Disciplina  Monaslica.     Paris,  1726,  c.  19. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  131 

Church  according  to  the  Decree  of  the  Sacred  Congregation  of 
Bishops  and  Kegulars,  August  11,  1889.400  The  plainness  and 
severity  of  the  garb  symbolizes  detachment,  and  is  an  insistent 
reminder  of  the  renunciation  which  is  a  negative  preparation 
for  the  consecration  of  the  will  and  energies  of  the  religious  to 
the  service  of  God  and  neighbor.  That  the  religious  habit 
should  make  for  liberty  of  spirit  is  implied  in  the  Kule  of  Saint 
Augustine :  "If  any  one  complain  that  she  has  received  a  worse 
habit  than  she  had  before,  and  that  she  is  not  considered  worthy 
to  be  clothed  like  the  other  Sisters,  you  prove  how  wanting  you 
are  in  that  interior  holy  raiment  of  the  heart  when  you  thus 
contend  about  the  clothing  of  the  body."  Herein  the  religious 
habit  finds  psychological  justification.401 

It  is  the  custom  of  nearly  all  the  religious  congregations  of 
women  to  carry  effacement  a  step  further.  A  novice  relin- 
quishes her  name  when  she  enters  religion  and  receives  a  religi- 
ous name,  differing  from  her  baptismal  name.  This  has  the 
twofold  purpose  of  removing  the  last  vestige  of  her  social  status 
and  also  of  linking  her  by  another  bond  to  the  religious  family 
of  which  she  becomes  a  member.  These  are  accidentals,  but 
since  "Nihil  est  in  intellects  quod  prius  non  fuerat  in  sensu" 
according  to  the  maxim  of  Aristotle,  the  things  of  sense  will 
affect  our  deepest  convictions.  The  suggestion  that  flows  from 
this  stripping  the  self  of  all  tangible  distinctions,  which  obtains 
in  all  religious  communities,  constitutes  a  constructive  influ- 
ence in  developing  a  readiness  and  courage  to  meet  hardships. 
Moreover,  the  removal  of  minor  personal  interests  makes  easier 
the  unselfish  girding  of  powers  for  the  great  purposes  of  life, 
and,  therefore,  the  forming  of  the  true  basis  of  character.  This 
casting  away  of  personal  distinction  is,  therefore,  an  element  to 
be  weighed  in  an  evaluation  of  environmental  agencies  at  hand 
to  form  the  novice  to  the  spirit  and  practice  of  community 
service. 

The  novice  must  be  willing  to  enter  upon  any  work  assigned 
her.  She  has  renounced  her  will,  and  by  that  fact  places  her- 
self in  any  capacity  that  her  superior  may  direct.  As  an  ele- 
ment of  religious  discipline,  manual  work  is  required  from 


400  Cf.  Vermeersoh,  A.,  "Religious,"  Catholic  Encyclopedia,  Vol.  XII,  p.  753. 

401  Op.  cit.,  p.  26. 


132  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

every  novice.  Saint  Jerome  writes  of  the  manual  labor  in  the 
convent  where  Saint  Paula  and  Saint  Eustochium  lived:  "I 
hear  that  they  who  formerly  could  not  bear  the  dirt  of  the 
streets,  who  were  supported  on  the  arms  of  slaves  and  found 
it  difficult  to  step  on  the  rough  ground;  they  to  whom  a  silk 
dress  was  a  burden  and  the  heat  of  the  sun  as  a  burning  fire; 
now,  clad  in  poor  and  somber  garments  and  courageous  in  emu- 
lating each  other,  clean  the  lamps,  make  the  fires,  sweep  the 
floors,  wash  the  vegetables,  throw  the  bundle  of  herbs  into  the 
pots  of  boiling  water,  set  the  table,  pass  around  the  drinking 
cups,  serve  the  food,  and  run  hither  and  thither/'402 

On  account  of  the  close  connection  between  muscular  activity 
and  the  will,  manual  work,  done  with  the  proper  motive,  has 
value  for  strengthening  the  will.  It  has  still  greater  value  as  a 
formative  influence  upon  character  in  teaching  the  lesson  of 
the  dignity  of  manual  labor,  and  also  of  the  human  person  as 
independent  of  the  work  which  engages  him.  It  cultivates, 
therefore,  true  humility,  a  sense  of  reality,  and  a  love  of  sin- 
cerity that  lie  at  the  heart  of  character.  To  these  ends  manual 
work  forms  an  integral  part  of  novitiate  training. 

The  fact  that  much  of  the  manual  work  in  community  life  is 
done  in  groups  gives  it  a  socializing  value.  The  conscious  indi- 
viduality is  lost  more  effectively  in  work  done  by  a  group  than 
in  any  other  way,  since  the  individual  under  that  condition 
shares  in  the  common  consciousness  and  develops  an  interest  in 
the  common  good.  The  consciousness  that  several  persons  are 
working  at  the  same  task  and  serving  the  same  cause  makes 
for  the  spirit  of  cooperation  and  devotion  to  the  common  good. 
With  a  sense  of  participation  in  work  comes  genuine  private 
care  of  public  property.  The  teacher  who  acquires  this  sense 
through  experience  will  thereby  gain  the  power  to  cultivate  it 
in  her  pupils. 

The  sharing  in  common  of  the  religious  life  extends  to  all 


402  "Sed  tamen  audio,  quae  immundias  platearum  ferre  non  poterant,  quae 
eunuchorum  manibus  portabuntur  et  inaequale  solum  molestius  transcendebant; 
quibus  serica  vestis  oneri  erat,  et  solis  color  incendium,  nunc  sordidatae  et  lugu- 
bres  et  sui  comparatione  forticulae,  vel  lucernas  concinnant,  vel  succendunt  focum, 
pavimenta  verrunt,  mundani  legumina,  olerum  fascicules  in  ferventem  ollam 
dejiciunt  apponunt  mensas  calices  porrigunt,  ejjundunt  cibos,  hue  illucque  dis- 
currunt."  Saint  Jerome,  "Epistle,  LXVI,  Ad  Pammachium,"  Migne,  Patro- 
hgia.  Paris,  1845,  Vol.  XXII,  p.  646. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  133 

the  externals  of  the  daily  life.  The  tasks  of  the  daily  routine 
are  assigned  to  the  novice  as  to  the  professed  religious,  to 
accomplish  either  singly  or  in  a  group,  according  to  the  nature 
of  the  work,  but  all  the  tasks  are  for  the  community  and  none 
for  the  individual  herself.  "No  one  shall  work  anything  for 
herself  alone,  .  .  .  but  all  your  work  shall  be  done  for  the 
common  use,  and  all  with  greater  zeal  and  more  cheerful  dili- 
gence than  if  you  were  each  employed  for  yourself  alone; 
.  .  .  for  it  is  written  of  charity  that  'it  seeketh  not  its  own,' 
which  means  that  charity  prefers  the  general  good  to  its  own, 
not  its  own  to  the  general  good."403  The  habitual  performing 
of  the  community  advantage  in  preference  to  one's  personal 
interest  is  the  underlying  and  unifying  principle  of  the  common 
life.  It  admits  no  compromise.  The  novices  serve  each  other  in 
the  offices  of  their  daily  routine  of  life,  in  the  refectory,  in  the 
work-room,  and  at  the  various  tasks  of  the  day.  Saint  Benedict 
says :  "Let  the  brethren  serve  so  that  no  one  be  excused  from 
the  work  in  the  kitchen  except  on  account  of  sickness  or  more 
necessary  work;  because  greater  merit  and  more  charity  is 
thereby  acquired.  Let  help  be  given  to  the  weak,  however,  that 
they  may  not  do  their  work  with  sadness ;  but  let  all  have  help 
according  to  the  size  of  the  community  and  the  circumstances 
of  the  place."404 

The  heart  and  center  of  the  task  of  community  life  is  loving 
service.  The  only  worthy  ambition  in  community  life  is  priority 
of  service.  Our  Divine  Saviour,  the  Model  of  every  religious, 
"sitting  down,  called  the  twelve,  and  saith  to  them:  If  any 
man  desire  to  be  first,  he  shall  be  the  last  of  all,  and  the 
minister  of  all."405  Again,  "And  whosoever  will  be  first  among 
you,  shall  be  the  servant  of  all.  For  the  Son  of  man  also  is  not 
come  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister."406  This  brings  us 
to  the  question  in  the  center  of  pedagogical  consciousness  today 
— the  problem  of  adequate  motivation.  The  Divine  Teacher, 
Who  in  His  teaching  anticipated  the  findings  of  modern  psy- 
chology because  He  had  perfect  insight,  taught  the  principle  of 


403  Rule  of  Saint  Augustine,  op.  cit.,  pp.  10,  11. 

404  Op.  cit.,  p.  84. 

405  Mark,  IX,  34. 

«•  Mark,  X,  44,  45. 


134  Pedagogical  Value  of   Willingness 

love  and  carried  this  motive  into  every  act  of  His  life  and  every 
utterance  of  His  teaching.  It  is  noteworthy  how  seldom  on  the 
pages  of  the  Gospels  the  word  duty  occurs  and  how  often  the 
word  love  is  found.  Our  Lord,  knowing  human  nature  per- 
fectly, knew  that  the  spirit  of  love  would  release  man's  deepest 
energies  for  service,  which  \vould  lie  dormant  if  the  appeal  was 
made  only  to  the  stern  sense  of  duty. 

The  strongest  motive  of  service  is  the  love  of  God.  That  we 
serve  Him  when  we  render  service  to  our  neighbor,  He  Himself 
told  His  disciples  in  the  parable  of  loving  service:  "Amen,  1 
say  to  you,  as  long  as  you  did  it  to  one  of  these  my  least 
brethren,  you  did  it  to  Me."407  Moreover,  He  insisted  that  the 
only  ground  of  true  service  is  self-sacrificing  love,  and  not 
recompense.  "When  thou  makest  a  dinner  or  a  supper,  call  not 
thy  friends,  nor  thy  brethren,  nor  thy  kinsmen,  nor  thy  neigh- 
bors who  are  rich ;  lest  perhaps  they  also  invite  thee  again,  and 
recompense  be  made  to  thee. 

"But  when  thou  makest  a  feast,  call  the  poor,  the  maimed, 
the  lame,  and  the  blind ; 

"And  thou  shalt  be  blessed  because  they  have  not  wherewith 
to  make  thee  recompense/'408 

There  is  no  exhortation  here  to  give  service  on  an 
economic  basis  or  for  any  personal  satisfaction,  but  from  un- 
selfish love  of  the  person,  seeing  the  soul  stamped  with  the 
image  of  Jesus  Christ  and  redeemed  by  His  Great  Sacrifice. 
The  love  of  Our  Lord  and  of  our  neighbor  because  He  first 
loved  him  is  the  source  and  center  from  which  will  proceed  the 
impulse  and  the  power  to  give  service. 

The  working  day  in  community  life  offers  countless  oppor- 
tunities for  just  this  kind  of  service;  disinterested  acts  done  in 
a  kindly,  genial  manner,  not  merely  because  one  happens  to  be 
in  a  generous  mood  or  because  it  is  a  personal  friend  whom  one 
wishes  to  help,  but  from  an  active  ministering  spirit  of  loving 
service.  Such  an  habitual  spirit  is  no  academic  acquisition, 
nor  is  it  easy  of  attainment.  Only  as  one  enters  into  Our  Lord's 
purposes  for  men  and  comes  to  a  recognition  of  His  teaching, 
which  was  "Do  good,  and  lend,  hoping  for  nothing  thereby ;  and 

407  Matthew,  XXV,  40. 
*°«  Luke,  XIV,  12-14. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  135 

your  reward  shall  be  great/7409  is  it  possible  to  enter  into  the 
genuine  spirit  of  service.  Our  Lord  took  the  pains  to  teach  in 
the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan  that  a  neighbor  is  a  person 
in  need ;  therefore  there  is  no  place  for  fine  discrimination  or 
personal  choice  in  the  matter.  His  words  must  come  with  per- 
sonal force  to  each  one  of  us,  "This  is  My  commandment,  that 
you  love  one  another,  as  I  have  loved  you."410 

The  care  of  the  sick  and  the  infirm  furnishes  opportunity  and 
work  for  loving  service.  The  constitutions  of  every  religious 
congregation  command  that  the  sick  members  receive  adequate 
and  tender  care.  "Before  and  above  all  things,  care  must  be 
taken  of  the  sick,  that  they  be  served  in  very  truth  as  Christ 
was  served ;  because  He  hath  said,  'I  was  sick  and  you  visited 
Me;'  and,  'As  long  as  you  did  it  to  one  of  these  My  least 
brethren,  you  did  it  to  Me.'  But  let  the  sick  themselves  also 
consider  that  they  are  served  for  the  honor  of  God,  and  let 
them  not  grieve  their  brethren  who  serve  them  by  unnecessary 
demands.  These  must,  however,  be  patiently  borne  with,  be- 
cause from  such  as  these  a  more  bountiful  reward  is  gained. 
Let  the  abbot's  greatest  concern,  therefore,  be  that  they  suffer 
no  neglect."411  The  Kule  points  clearly  to  the  fact  that  service 
derives  its  inspiration  from  religion  and  its  active  ministering 
force  from  the  same  power.  To  see  God  in  man  and  to  recognize 
the  value  of  man's  immortal  soul  is  the  inevitable  condition  of 
highest  personal  sacrifice.  It  not  only  makes  sacrifice  rational, 
but  places  such  worth  upon  the  human  person  as  to  lift  it  to  the 
sphere  of  supernatural  values. 

The  community  recreation  is  a  daily  exercise  in  every  religi- 
ous house,  to  which  great  importance  attaches.  This  hour  of 
informal  intercourse  is  a  natural  outlet  of  the  social  impulse, 
affording  an  opportunity  for  all  the  novices  to  meet.  It  is  a 
fruitful  means  in  community  life  to  promote  mutual  under- 
standing and  good  fellowship.  If  recreation  is  to  be  of  good 
quality,  it  must  stimulate  the  agreeable  emotions.  The  mind 
cannot  be  emotionally  colorless.  It  is,  therefore,  regarded  a 
high  duty  in  religious  life  to  come  with  a  good  spirit  to  recrea- 


409  Luke,  VI,  35. 

410  John,  XV,  12. 

411  Rule  of  Saint  Benedict,  pp.  87,  88. 


136  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

tion  and  to  join  heartily  in  it.  Good  feeling  is  contagious.  It 
has  great  socializing  value.  Except  the  spiritual  exercises, 
probably  nothing  during  the  day  so  enriches  and  unifies  the 
community  spirit  as  does  the  recreation  period,  because  it  culti- 
vates a  general  intimacy  among  the  members.  Empirically,  we 
know  that  further  acquaintance  with  a  person  ordinarily  makes 
for  kind  feeling.  Philosophically,  Saint  Thomas  states  the 
principle  underlying  the  fact:  "Quantum  ~bonum  plenius  cog- 
noscitur,  tanto  magis  est  amaMle."412  "The  more  fully  a  good 
is  known,  the  more  lovable  it  is." 

There  remains  for  consideration  the  subject  of  prayer,  which 
is  the  great  formative  influence  for  service  in  the  life  of  the 
novice.  Herein  she  finds  the  means  to  invoke  the  Source  of 
Light  and  Strength  for  grace  to  enlighten  her  mind  and 
strengthen  her  will  to  do  the  daily  tasks.  Prayer  is  of  two 
kinds,  public  and  private.  Public  prayer  is  vocal,  that  all  who 
are  assembled  may  unite  and  pray  in  common.  Our  Lord  has 
promised  that  where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in  His 
name  there  will  He  be  in  the  midst  of  them.413  The  public 
prayers  are  the  great  acts  of  liturgical  worship.  The  great 
public  prayers  common  to  the  religious  are  (1)  the  Holy  Sacri- 
fice of  the  Mass,  at  which  the  novices  assist  each  morning  to 
offer  to  God  anew  Our  Lord's  Great  Act  of  Sacrifice  and  to 
receive  the  graces  which  flow  from  that  Sacrifice;  (2)  Holy 
Communion,  in  which  they  receive  the  Author  of  all  grace,  Him 
whose  Heart  is  the  Heart  of  Charity.  Mass  and  Holy  Com- 
munion are  two  great  sources  of  supernatural  strength,  and  the 
floods  of  grace  flowing  from  these  fountains  give  capacity  for 
sacrifice  and  rouse  the  will  to  high  endeavor;  (3)  the  Office, 
which  in  most  congregations  of  women  is  the  Little  Office,  con- 
sisting of  the  Psalms  and  short  lessons  from  Holy  Scripture. 
The  term  Office,  in  its  usual  signification,  implies  a  principal 
duty  of  a  state  of  life.  In  this  sense,  the  office  of  chanting  the 
Divine  praises  is  a  duty  of  religious.  The  choral  recitation  of 
the  Office  morning  and  evening  by  a  religious  community  is  a 
great  act  of  divine  worship.  Saint  Augustine  says:  "Oh,  in 
what  accents  spake  I  unto  Thee,  my  God,  when  I  read  the 

412  3  Lib.,  Dist.  27,  Q.  3,  Art.  1. 
"*  Cf.  Matthew,  XVIII,  20. 


Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness  137 

Psalms  of  David,  those  faithful  songs  and  sounds  of  devotion ! 
.  .  .  How  was  I  by  them  kindled  towards  Thee,  and  on  fire 
to  rehearse  them,  if  possible,  through  the  whole  world  against 
the  pride  of  mankind!"41*  Prescinding  entirely  the  super- 
natural effect  which  is  the  end  of  every  prayer,  it  has  a  psycho- 
logical effect,  as  has  every  mental  state.  The  chanting  of  the 
Office  by  all  the  community  "with  mind  and  voice  in  one  ac- 
cord"415 has  a  unifying,  spiritually-exalting  influence  upon  the 
corporate  body.  The  effect  is  heightened  when  each  "hour" 
is  preceded  by  the  prayer,  Domine,  in  unione,  etc.,  in  which  the 
intention  is  renewed  to  offer  these  Divine  praises  with  the  same 
intention  with  which  Our  Lord  offered  praises  to  God.  The  fre- 
quent renewal  of  this  intention  widens  charity  and  makes  it 
embrace  all  humanity. 

Private  prayer  includes  meditation,  examination  of  con- 
science, and  devotional  prayers.  Meditation  is  essentially  a 
turning  of  the  mind  to  God  and  entertaining  oneself  with  Him 
in  the  inner  sanctuary  of  the  heart.  There  are  various  methods 
of  meditation,  and  in  every  method  all  the  faculties  of  the  soul 
are  exercised  to  make  the  heart  love  the  law  of  God.  Since  the 
great  truths  of  faith  do  not  fall  within  the  cognizance  of  the 
senses,  they  make  very  little  impression  upon  the  mind.  In 
order  to  realize  them,  it  is  necessary  to  dispose  the  mind  con- 
sciously to  their  consideration.  The  preparation  for  medita- 
tion is  of  two  kinds — the  general  or  remote — consisting  of  a 
certain  disposition  of  mind  and  heart  which  presupposes  the 
removal  of  all  obstacles  to  prayer.  Cassian  said,  in  his  Confer- 
ence on  Prayer,  "Et  ideo  primum  de  qualitate  ejus  desideramus 
institui;  id  est,  quails  defeat  emitti  semper  oratio;  delude 
qualiter  hanc  eamdem,  quaecumque  est,  possidere  vel  exercerc 
sine  intermissione  possimus."*16  "Wherefore  what  we  want  to 
find  ourselves  like  while  we  are  praying,  that  we  ought  to  pre- 
pare ourselves  to  be  before  the  time  of  prayer,"  for  we  can 
never  be  more  in  prayer  than  we  are  out  of  prayer.  The  par- 
ticular or  proximate  preparation  consists  in  certain  acts  made 
immediately  before  meditation.  Heading  stimulates  the  mem- 


414  Confessions  of  Saint  Augustine,  translated  by  Pusey.     London,   1907, 
p.  180. 

415  Rule  of  Saint  Benedict,  Chapter,  19,  p.  62. 

418  Collatio.  IX,  Migne,  Patrologia  Latina.     Paris,  1846,  p.  779. 


138  Pedagogical  Value  of   Willingness 

ory  and  imagination  to  furnish  the  considerations  to  the 
intellect  suitable  for  meditation.  "Meditation  fixates  the  atten- 
tion, and  so  can  develop  associations  and  thus  bring  out  weak 
sentiments  and  ideas."417  Payot  makes  distinction  between  the 
purpose  of  reading  or  studying  and  that  of  meditation :  "When 
we  study,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  we  seek  primarily  to  know;  when 
we  reflect,  we  have  quite  another  intention.  Our  aim  is  to 
awaken  in  the  soul  sensations  either  of  love  or  hatred."418  It 
is  thus  that  the  psychologist  conceives  the  act  of  meditation. 
Masters  of  the  spiritual  life  go  further,  and  say  that  meditation 
is  not  so  much  a  sustained  effort  of  reflection  or  concentration 
of  thought  upon  some  abstract  subject  of  morality  or  religion 
as  it  is  a  loving  intercourse  of  the  soul  with  Our  Lord,  and  that 
the  immediate  effect,  therefore,  is  to  raise  the  soul  above  its 
own  selfish  preoccupations  by  attaching  itself  firmly  to  God.419 
"Mental  prayer  or  meditation  does  not  consist  in  thinking 
much,  but  in  loving  much,"  was  a  maxim  of  Saint  Teresa.420 
This  daily  morning  exercise  is  a  potent  means  to  develop  a 
spiritual  vision,  enabling  the  soul  to  see  the  Divine  Will  in  the 
daily  events  of  life  and  to  place  the  Divine  interests  uppermost 
in  her  life.  As  all  powers  develop  by  exercise,  the  soul  in 
meditation  grows  in  the  love  of  God  by  the  concentration  of  its 
native  force  upon  the  truths  of  faith,  in  the  contemplation  of 
the  divine  perfections,  and  in  its  intimate  conversation  with 
the  Person  of  Our  Lord,  in  accordance  with  the  modern  state- 
ment of  the  psychological  law  of  habit,  which  had  been  enun- 
ciated before  by  the  Divine  Teacher  in  the  words,  "For  he  that 
hath,  to  him  shall  be  given;  and  he  that  hath  not,  that  also 
which  he  hath  shall  be  taken  away  from  him."421 

That  religious  have  universally  and  at  all  times  recognized 
the  fruitfulness  of  meditation  in  the  spiritual  life,  both  to  will 
and  to  act,  is  apparent  from  the  important  place  that  it  holds 
in  the  daily  religious  life.  In  the  early  ages  and  throughout 


417  Hall,  G.  S.,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  p.  298. 

418  IS  Education  de  la  Volonte.     Paris,  1903,  p.  92. 

419  Cf.  Mercier,  D.,  Cardinal,  Conferences,  translated  by  O'Kavanagh,  J. 
New  York,  1910,  p.  103. 

420  Cf.  Alphonsus  Fr.,  Carmelite,  Practice  of  Mental  Prayer  and  of  Perfection 
According  to  Saint  Teresa  and  Saint  John  of  the  Cross,  translated  by  O'Connell, 
J.     Rome,  1910,  p.  323. 

421  Mark,  IV,  25. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  139 

the  Middle  Ages  meditation  was  so  much  a  part  of  the  daily 
life  of  a  religious  that  those  who  formulated  the  rule  and  con- 
stitutions made  no  regulation  for  it.  In  the  Kule  of  Saint 
Benedict  there  is  no  allotted  time  for  meditation.  Since  the 
close  of  the  Middle  Ages  the  rule  or  constitutions  of  every 
religious  order  or.  congregation  have  provided  for  the  regular 
daily  observance  of  this  spiritual  exercise.  As  in  the  physical 
order  so  in  the  spiritual  is  the  maxim  true,  "Prius  est  lucere 
quam  illuminare."  Saint  Thomas  says  of  religious:  "They 
ought  to  be  at  once  men  of  action  and  of  contemplation,  going 
to  God  by  contemplation  and  to  the  people  by  action."422  The 
Angelic  Doctor  urges  and  at  the  same  time  defines  the  great 
purpose  and  work  of  the  Dominican  vocation  in  these  words: 
''Et  sicut  majus  est  illuminare  quam  lucere  solum  ita  majus 
est  contemplata  aliis  tradere  quam  solus  contemplari"423 
"And  as  it  is  greater  to  diffuse  light  than  to  shine  only,  so  it 
is  greater  to  give  to  others  the  fruits  of  contemplation  than  to 
contemplate  only." 

The  most  fruitful  subject  of  meditation  is  some  mystery  in 
the  life  of  Our  Lord.  "Meditation  is  only  obedience  to  Saint 
Paul's  injunction,  'Think  dilligently  upon  Him  that  endured 
such  opposition  from  sinners  against  Himself,  that  you  be  not 
wearied,  fainting  in  your  mind.'  "424  Consistent  with  this  com- 
mand of  Saint  Paul's  was  his  frequent  admonition  to  put  on 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  to  be  imitators  of  Him,  and  his 
constant  endeavor  to  form  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  his 
followers  a  perfect  image  of  Our  Lord.  To  imitate  Christ  is 
the  high  road  to  perfection ;  the  study  of  how  to  do  this  effec- 
tively is  the  great  work  of  meditation.  He  is  the  Ideal,  the 
Divine  Exemplar  of  every  religious.  As  the  artist  in  his  studio 
works  with  his  model  before  him  and  frequently  refers  to  it  as 
he  develops  his  conception,  so  the  religious  in  her  daily  life 
often  turns  the  inner  eye  of  the  soul  to  her  Divine  Model  to 
conform  her  conduct  to  her  Copy.  Especially  is  meditation  a 
time  to  dwell  in  mind  upon  Our  Blessed  Lord  in  some  mystery, 


422  "Ut  pote  qui  medii  sunt  inter  Deum  et  plebem;  a  Deo  recipientes  per  con- 
templationem  et  populo  tradentes  per  actionem."     3  Lib.,  Dist.,  XXXV,  Q.  I. 
Art.  3,  p.  586. 

423  Constitutiones  Fratrum  S.  Ordinis  Praedicatorum.     Paris,  1886,  p.  16. 

424  Elliott,  op.  cit.,  p.  192. 


140  Pedagogical  Value  of   Willingness 

incident,  or  teaching  of  His  life.  If  the  novice  has  the  desire 
for  perfection  that  moved  her  to  renounce  material  and  social 
pleasures,  she  will  endeavor  to  form  her  life  according  to  the 
Divine  Master  and  persistently  to  imitate  Him  in  her  conduct. 

In  the  heart  of  every  religious  is  the  deep  desire  to  strive  after 
two  of  Our  Divine  Saviour's  perfections  especially,  which  im- 
plies a  persistent  sensitiveness  of  conscience  that  is  both  the 
condition  and  the  effect  of  the  steady  cultivation  of  the  interior 
life:  (1)  The  desire  to  do  always  the  Will  of  God.  "I  came 
down  from  Heaven,  not  to  do  My  own  will,  but  the  will  of  Him 
that  sent  me."425  And  again,  "My  meet  is  to  do  the  will  of  Him 
that  sent  Me,  that  I  may  perfect  His  work."426  (2)  Compas- 
sion and  loving  service  and  self-sacrifice.  "The  Son  of  Man  is 
not  come  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister."427  The 
lesson  is  constantly  recurring  in  His  teaching  that  the 
only  consistent  ambition  of  His  followers  is  the  ambition 
to  surpass  in  unselfish  service.  To  the  disciples  whose 
ambition  was  fixed  on  the  seats  of  honor  He  spoke  only 
of  sacrificial  service.  "Can  you  drink  of  the  chalice  that  I 
drink  of?"428  To  the  Twelve  He  said:  "You  know  that  they 
who  seem  to  rule  over  the  Gentiles,  lord  it  over  them.  .  .  . 
But  it  is  not  so  among  you :  but  whosoever  will  be  greater,  shall 
be  your  minister.  And  whosoever  will  be  first  among  you,  shall 
be  the  servant  of  all."429  He  taught  also  in  parable  patient 
readiness  for  exacting  service.430  He  repeated  insistently  the 
great  paradox  containing  the  fundamental  principle  that  true 
self-realization  comes  with  self-sacrifice ;  it  occurs  in  all  four  of 
the  Gospels  and  twice  in  two  of  them.  "He  that  shall  lose  his 
life  for  My  sake,  shall  find  it."431  In  washing  the  feet  of  His 
disciples  in  the  Upper  Boom  the  last  night  before  His  Great 
Sacrifice  He  gave  the  example  of  humility  and  service.  And 
then  He  spoke  the  solemn  words,  "For  I  have  given  you  an 
example,  that  as  I  have  done  to  you,  so  you  do  also.  Amen,  amen 


425  John,  VI,  38. 

426  John,  IV,  34. 

427  Mark,  X,  45. 

428  Mark,  X,  38. 

429  Mark,  X,  42-44. 

430  Cf.  Luke,  XVII,  7-10. 

431  Matthew,  X,  38,  XVI,  25.     Luke,  IX,  24,  XVII.  33,     Mark,  VIII,   35. 
John,  XII,  25. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  141 

I  say  to  you :  the  servant  is  not  greater  than  his  lord ;  neither  is 
the  apostle  greater  than  He  that  sent  him."432  The  spirit  of 
service  which  Our  Lord  taught  must  fill  the  hearts  of  His  fol- 
lowers. To  take  a  lower  standard  than  this  is  to  be  satisfied 
with  ordinary  and  commonplace  spiritual  attainment.  There 
is  no  exemption  from  hard  things  for  one  who  has  chosen  'to 
imitate  Christ.  These  lessons,  all  culminating  in  the  Great 
Sacrifice,  are  the  lessons  that  the  novice  learns  in  her  associa- 
tion with  the  Divine  Teacher  of  service  in  daily  meditation. 
One  gradually  grows  to  resemble  the  person  whom  one  admires 
and  loves  and  associates  with;  so  the  novice  should  begin  to 
show  in  her  daily  life  some  slight  resemblance  to  Our  Divine 
Saviour  in  her  self-surrender.  This  is  the  heart  of  her  task,  to 
practice  His  self-sacrifice.  When  she  places  herself  under  His 
inspiration  in  meditation  she  learns  to  place  the  spiritual  in 
the  center  of  her  interests. 

To  supply  material  for  meditation  spiritual  reading  is  neces- 
sary. The  shifting  scenes  and  distracting  cares  of  daily  work 
haunt  the  imagination  unless  the  mind  is  enriched  with  food 
for  thought.  The  Founders  of  Keligious  Orders  have  appre- 
ciated the  value  of  this  daily  spiritual  exercise,  and  have  in- 
cluded it  in  the  rule  or  constitutions.  In  the  novitiate  it  is  a 
daly  practice.  Of  all  spiritual  reading  the  Holy  Scripture  is 
the  most  excellent.  The  Gospels  represent  in  the  concrete  the 
perfection  of  every  virtue  in  the  Incarnate  Wisdom  of  God. 
Saint  Augustine  says:  "Let  Thy  Scriptures  be  my  pure  de- 
light ;  let  me  not  be  deceived  in  them,  nor  deceive  out  of  them. 
.  .  .  Let  me  confess  unto  Thee  whatsoever  I  shall  find  in  Thy 
books,  and  hear  the  voice  of  praise,  and  drink  in  Thee,  and 
meditate  on  the  wonderful  things  out  of  Thy  law."433  Saint 
Jerome,  writing  to  Eustochium,  said:  ''Read  very  frequently; 
learn  as  much  as  possible.  Let  sleep  overcome  you  in  your 
reading,  and  when  your  head  falls,  let  it  be  on  the  pages  of 
Holy  Scriptures."434  He  said,  "It  was  not  permitted'  to  any  of 


«2  John,  XIII,  15-16. 

433  Confessions  of  Saint  Augustine,  op.  cit.,  p.  254. 

434  "Crebrius   lege,   disce  quam   plurimum,    Tenenti  faciem  codicem  somnus 
obrepat  et  cadentem  faciem  pagina  sancta  suscipiat."     Epistle,  XXII,  Migne, 
Patrologia  Latina.     Paris,  1845,  Vol.  XXII,  p.  404. 


142  Pedagogical   Value  of   Willingness 

the  Sisters  to  be  ignorant  of  the  Psalms,  or  not  to  learn  daily 
something  from  Holy  Scriptures."435 

Besides  the  Holy  Scriptures,  spiritual  reading  includes : 
(1)  Instruction  on  the  spiritual  life,  which  consists  of  treatises 
on  the  principles  of  spirituality,  the  virtues  and  the  means  of 
acquiring  them.  (2)  Exhortatory  reading,  as  the  Imita- 
tion of  Christ  and  the  writings  of  the  Venerable  Blosius,  which 
tend  to  become  a  kind  of  prayer  and  dispose  the  heart  to  the 
genuine  love  of  God.  (3)  The  Lives  of  the  Saints,  and  espe- 
cially those  of  one's  particular  Order,  which  form  inspiring 
reading  to  those  striving  for  the  goal  which  these  spiritual 
athletes  have  already  won.  The  psychological  value  which 
Doctor  G.  Stanley  Hall  attaches  to  the  reading  of  the  Lives 
of  the  Saints,  "lives  full  of  ethical  uplift,  and  which  appeal  to 
the  heroic  instincts  of  the  young,"  has  given  this  subject  con- 
siderable vogue  in  educational  circles,  for  it  is  "A  great  arsenal 
of  material  rich  to  this  end"  [of  moral  education].436  As  a 
moral  stimulus  to  heroic  endeavor,  they  are  no  less  valuable 
to  religious  than  to  younger  minds. 

Self-examination  as  a  spiritual  exercise  may  be  considered 
supplementary  to  meditation.  The  profitable  meditation  has 
fixed  upon  some  definite  resolution  for  the  day's  practice.  In 
self-examination  the  religious  searches  herself  to  see  how  far 
she  has  conformed  to  the  moral  law  and  how  far  she  has  been 
faithful  to  her  morning  resolution.  In  meditation  she  dwells 
especially  upon  her  Divine  Exemplar,  in  Whom  "Mercy  and 
truth  have  met  each  other;  justice  and  peace  have  kissed,"437 
and  in  Whom  all  the  virtues  are  incarnate  to  an  infinite 
degree.  Examination  of  conscience  is  a  kind  of  medita- 
tion in  which  she  turns  the  mental  eye  upon  her  own  soul  and 
measures  her  own  thoughts,  words,  and  acts  by  the  spiritual 
standard  to  see  how  far  the  spirit  of  Christ  has  been  realized 
in  her  actions  and  how  far  self-love  has  vitiated  them.  There 
is  always  a  distance  between  the  standard  and  the  attainment ; 
therefore,  the  self-examination  is  always  followed  by  sorrow. 


its  "jVec  licebat  cuiquam  sororum  ignorare  Psalmos,  et  non  de    Scripturis 
tanctis  quotidie  aliquid  discere."     Epistle,  CVIII,  ibid,  p.  896. 

436  Hall,  G.  S.,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  p.  300. 

437  Psalm,  LXXXIV,  11. 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  143 

whose  source  is  the  love  of  God,  Whom  she  has  offended.  Every 
artist  has  scientific  principles  of  criticism  by  which  he  judge* 
his  production.  His  progress  in  a  great  measure  is  conditioned 
by  the  exactness  with  which  he  applies  these  canons  of  art  to 
his  daily  achievement.  Attainment  comes  only  with  persever- 
ing effort.  At  intervals  there  must  be  a  comparison  of  the 
results  of  his  work  with  the  perfection  of  the  model  and  a  fore- 
cast of  how  he  can  improve  upon  his  past  attainment.  This  is 
the  rationale  of  self-examination. 

Examination  of  conscience  is  of  two  kinds — general  and 
particular.  The  general,  made  at  the  close  of  the  day,  aims  to 
review  the  day's  conduct  to  correct  all  faults;  the  particular, 
made  in  the  morning,  by  way  of  forecast,  and  at  noon  and  at 
evening  in  retrospect,  aims  to  correct  a  single  fault  or  to 
acquire  a  single  virtue.  Self-examination,  when  seriously  prac- 
ticed, is  a  potent  means  of  keeping  the  motive  right.  By  the 
particular  examen  especially  the  novice  trains  herself  to  work 
for  purity  of  intention  which  excludes  all  self-interest.  To 
secure  right  motivation  requires  the  freeing  of  the  affections 
from  created  things  to  attach  them  to  God's  Will.  By  the 
steady  effort  to  make  habitual  the  purity  of  intention,  which  is 
the  mainspring  of  the  inner  life,  she  lays  hold  of  the  dynamic 
of  the  life  of  service.  Mindful  of  Our  Divine  Lord's  words, 
"For  from  within  out  of  the  heart  of  men  proceed  evil 
thoughts,"438  she  knows  that  vigilant  watchfulness  of  motive 
is  the  price  of  high  spiritual  attainment.  Herein  lies  the  great 
value  of  the  particular  examen. 

The  contributions  which  the  novitiate  makes  toward  fitting 
the  candidate  teacher  to  train  in  citizenship  is  this:  It  fur- 
nishes the  working  conditions,  the  adequate  motive  and  the 
social  reinforcement  of  example  to  form  in  the  teacher  habitual 
willingness  for  disinterested  service. 

III.    The  Means  of  Heightening  the  Spirit  of  Disinterestedness 
of  the  Religious  Teacher  While  in  Service 

The  actual  living  day  by  day  the  community  life  that  the 
religious  teacher  has  entered  will  keep  the  spirit  of  service  and 


433  Mark,  VII,  21. 


144  Pedagogical  Value  of   Willingness 

sacrifice  in  active  force  in  her  daily  life.  In  the  novitiate, 
while  she  was  free  from  any  obligation  but  that  of  gratitude 
and  charity,  she  laid  the  groundwork  of  the  religious  life  and 
cultivated  the  sacrificial  spirit.  After  profession  of  the  vows 
she  is  bound  by  justice,  which  inheres  in  the  contract  that  has 
been  drawn  between  the  novice  and  her  religious  superior* 
representing  the  congregation,  as  well  as  by  charity,  to  practice 
the  virtue  of  poverty,  which  fosters  the  spirit  of  sacrifice.439 
The  question  as  to  the  means  of  heightening  the  spirit  of  dis- 
interestedness is  the  question  of  how  to  keep  alive  and  active 
the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  and  self-devotion.  In  the  light  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  fundamental  laws  of  psychology,  the  answer 
is  not  difficult.  The  principle  of  expressional  activity  is  one 
factor  in  the  solution  of  the  problem.  To  give  expression  to  an 
inclination  strengthens  it.  "The  motor  consequences  are  what 
clinch  it.  Some  effect  due  to  it  in  the  way  of  an  activity  must 
return  to  the  mind  in  the  form  of  the  sensation  of  having  acted, 
and  connect  itself  with  the  impression.  The  most  durable  im- 
pressions are  those  on  account  of  which  we  speak  or  act,  or  else 
are  inwardly  convulsed.'7440  But  back  of  the  psychological 
factor  lies  the  supernatural  motive.  Acting  upon  the  lever  of 
divine  grace  obtained  through  the  Sacraments,  the  daily  Mass, 
prayer,  and  the  faithful  observance  of  the  vows  and  rule,  the 
will  is  invigorated  for  high  performance,  and  gradually  forms 
the  religious  to  the  more  perfect  habits  of  service.  The  religi- 
ous who  has  begun  earnestly  should  wish  to  continue  in  the 
same  spirit.  "It  is  little  to  have  renounced  all  things  at  the 
beginning  of  our  conversion  if  we  do  not  continue  in  that  dis- 
position and  renounce  them  every  day.'7441 

The  discipline  and  exercise  of  the  religious  life  form  the 
religious  character  in  the  same  way  that  the  practice  of  law 
makes  the  lawyer  and  the  continual  experience  of  business 
makes  the  man  of  affairs.442  "There  could  be  no  greater  aid  to 


439  Cf.  Cormier,  H.  M.,  O.P.,  op.  cit.,  p.  398-99. 

440  James,  W.,  Talks  to  Teachers  on  Psychology.     New  York,  1899,  pp.  33,  34. 

441  "Parum  est  enim  renuntiasse  monachum  semel,  id  est,  in  primordio  con- 
versionis  suae  contempsisse  praesentia,  nisi  eis  quotidie  renuntiare  perstiterit." 
Cassian,  Collatio,  XXIV,  Migne,  Patrologia,  Vol.  XLIX,  p.  1287. 

442  Cf.  Buckler,  H.  R.,  Spiritual  Instruction  on  Religious  Life.     London, 
1910,  p.  174. 


Pedagogical    Value  of   Willingness  145 

the  creation  [of  a  spiritual  conscience]  than  the  spectacle  of 
men  who  can  pursue  spiritual  things  with  a  more  powerful 
passion  than  that  with  which  men  of  the  world  follow  after 
gold  and  fame."443  This  represents  a  type  of  fervor  not  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  religious  who  consecrates  her  will  to  God  by 
the  vows.  "The  Orders  understand  how  to  inspire  mediocre 
characters,  and  to  educate  them  in  a  magnificent  fashion  to  an 
almost  superhuman  degree  of  self-sacrifice."444  In  the  desire 
to  persevere  and  to  continue  in  the  self-sacrifice  of  her  first 
charity,  the  laws  of  both  nature  and  grace  aid  the  religious 
teacher  to  the  attainment  of  this  high  end. 


443  Foerster,  op.  cit.,  p.  131. 
"*  Ibid.,  p.  143,  note  1. 


CONCLUSION 

The  content  of  the  term  citizenship  has  broadened  and  has 
come  to  comprehend  all  the  relationships  that  are  involved  in 
membership  in  a  community.  It  includes  especially  a  sense  of 
personal  responsibility  to  the  community  and  a  willingness  to 
serve  it  at  the  sacrifice  of  self-interest.  Citizenship  in  this 
connotation  exists  in  the  form  of  an  ideal  to  be  aimed  at  rather 
than  something  already  attained.  The  individual  alone  and  in 
society  are  two  different  psychological  beings.  Whether  the 
end  of  education  be  stated  in  terms  of  individual  development 
or  social  improvement,  the  relation  between  the  individual  and 
society  is  so  intimate  that  a  definition  of  education  must  include 
both  aims.  The  task  of  the  school  is  to  develop  the  germinal 
powers  of  the  child,  with  the  twofold  aim  of  cultivating  his 
personal  virtue  and  preserving  the  strength  of  his  own  per- 
sonality, and  at  the  same  time  of  developing  his  willingness  to 
use  his  powers  to  serve  the  community. 

At  present  the  emphasis  is  on  the  social  importance  of  the 
school,  which  is  coming  to  be  regarded  as  a  social  institution, 
and  the  teacher  as  a  social  worker.  "Service  and  training  for 
service  of  our  fellow-men  is,  or  should  be,  the  keynote  of  modern 
education."445  This  leads  directly  to  the  related  subject,  the 
equipment  of  the  teacher.  Teaching  is  a  fine  art.  The  teacher 
is  the  only  artist  who  cannot  represent  the  qualities  which  she 
does  not  possess.  It  is  essential  that  she  shall  exemplify  and 
enforce  by  her  own  character  those  virtues  that  she  is  to  culti- 
vate in  the  pupils.  "What  you  are,  cries  out  so  loud  I  cannot 
hear  what  you  say,"  is  a  picturesque  rendering  of  a  practical 
maxim.  Since  qualities  are  vitally  communicated,  a  spirit 
enkindles  spiritual  qualities  in  another;  character  begets 
character. 

In  the  typical  training  school  of  the  state  teacher  the  train- 
ing is  essentially  academic  and  professional.  The  moral  train- 
ing is  incidental.  However  earnestly  this  school  system  favort 
self-sacrifice  and  self-devotion  in  the  life  of  the  teacher,  it  lacks 
the  power  either  to  engender  it  or  to  heighten  it.  In  the  train- 


445  Perry,  E.  D.,  "Problems  of  the  University,"  Congress  of  Arts  and  Sciences, 
op.  cit.,  p.  161. 
146 


Pedagogical  Value  of  Willingness  147 

ing  school  of  the  religious  teacher  the  daily  practice  of  service 
strengthens  the  habit  of  sacrifice  and  service  until  it  becomes 
second  nature,  and,  as  it  were,  organic,  so  that  in  the  social  and 
moral  issues  of  the  school  her  attitude  is  that  of  devotion  to 
the  common  welfare.  By  the  subtle  power  of  influence,  the 
pupils  catch  the  spirit  that  cannot  be  taught.  Both  ideals  and 
habits  must  be  formed  by  daily  contact  with  one  who  is  thor- 
oughly vital  herself.  The  teacher  who  is  successful  in  char- 
acter-building strives  to  express  in  her  own  conduct  what  she 
would  form  the  pupils  to  practice.  "He  that  shall  do  and 
teach,  he  shall  be  called  great  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven."446 
What  the  religious  life  does  for  training  teachers  in  willingness 
for  disinterested  service  is  to  create  and  maintain  the  condi- 
tions in  which  it  not  only  can  be  cultivated,  but  in  which  it  is 
unconsciously  and  in  a  degree  necessarily  cultivated,  and  to 
furnish  to  that  end  both  the  natural  and  the  supernatural 
means,  which  may  affect  different  individuals  in  varying  de- 
gree, but  which  affect  all  unconsciously  and  consciously  in  a 
very  considerable  degree. 


446  Matthew,  V,  19. 


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VITA 

Sister  Mary  Ruth  Devlin  was  born  in  Kenosha,  Wisconsin, 
November  26,  1868.  She  received  her  elementary  education  in 
the  public  school  of  her  native  place  and  a  part  of  her  high 
school  education  at  Saint  Clara  Academy,  Sinsinawa,  Wis- 
consin. She  was  graduated  from  the  Wisconsin  State  Normal 
School  at  Whitewater  in  1895.  She  was  instructor  in  science 
from  1895  to  1897  in  the  public  high  school,  Marshfield,  Wiscon- 
sin; from  1897  to  1899  in  the  Catholic  high  school,  Appleton, 
Wisconsin.  In  1899  she  entered  the  novitiate  of  the  Sisters  of 
St.  Dominic,  Sinsinawa,  Wisconsin.  She  was  instructor  in 
Saint  Clara  Academy  and  later  in  Saint  Clara  College,  pursu- 
ing courses  at  intervals  at  Saint  Clara  College,  the  Chicago 
University  and  the  Sisters  Summer  School,  Catholic  Univer- 
sity, 1911.  She  received  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  from 
Saint  Clara  College  in  1912,  and  that  of  Master  of  Arts  from 
the  Sisters  Catholic  College  in  1913.  Since  then  she  has  been 
instructor  in  Saint  Clara  College  and  student  in  residence  at 
the  Sisters  Catholic  College,  Catholic  University  of  America. 


154 


AN  MI.IAXI"  Of 


VC  04047 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CAUFORNIA  LIBRAK 


